I recently attended a volunteer programme organised by Mensch, and, at the venue, I met a young German woman visiting South Africa to volunteer with the organisation supported by the Mensch programme. She had been introduced as being from Germany, but I wondered about her name. So, when she came up to the spot where I was working and asked if she could assist me, I asked about her origins, enquiring as to whether she was from a Turkish German family since I know that there is a big Turkish population in Germany.
The young woman acknowledged that, yes, she was of Turkish extraction from her mother’s side. And then we got onto other subjects, including what languages her family speaks. She told me that her family speaks German at home because her mother and father don’t share any other language. Intrigued, I asked her about her father’s background. She dropped her head, looked away, and mumbled something that I couldn’t make out. Asking her to repeat what she was saying, she then said, in an apologetic way, “He’s Palestinian.”
I can only think that the manner in which this young person responded must reflect that she knew that the volunteers working there that day were Jewish. And my instinctive response was equally problematic: I have to admit that I gasped because I certainly was not expecting to meet a Palestinian person, especially not in a face-to-face environment. If she’d been of Moroccan, English, French, Malawian – or any other – nationality, I doubt that I would have reacted in a similar way.
We worked alongside each other for most of the morning, discussing a range of topics. In that process, I believe that we could see beyond the aggression and the differences, and we were able rather to appreciate each other as human beings who, ultimately, pretty much want similar things in life.
This incident brought to mind an editorial I wrote not long after the October 7th attacks in Israel, in which I spoke about my fear that we would see a great deal more polarisation within society, with pro-Israel supporters and the Muslim world moving further away from one another then ever before. And I think that this is definitely what has happened. But this experience highlighted for me that, beyond the aggression from large groups of people, there are ordinary people – people like me and the volunteer from Germany – who don’t seek confrontation with everyone from ‘the other side’ and just want to live a peaceful and fulfilling life.
The team who produce the Chronicle extend our very best wishes to you, your families and to all of Am Yisrael around the world for a peaceful Rosh Hashanah and a meaningful Yom Kippur. We look ahead to a year of greater peace and security for all Jews around the world.
The fears about our safety at the moment bring to mind the numerous occasions in the past when Jews have been threatened just for being Jewish. This is highlighted in the articles in this edition focusing on the terrible experiences of French Jews during the War (page 6, and here), as well as on the tragedy that befell the Jews of Rhodes in the Mediterranean (page 40 and 41, and here). “Never again!” must be the motto of all people around the world.
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