Letter: Morah Yehudis Fishman’s Uplifting Article

Dear editor:

It was truly refreshing to read that there are people in Hollywood who appreciate the many contributions that Jews had made, and are continuing to make, to the entertainment industry. (Letter: Hollywood’s Ten Commandments, BJN 8/20/26) Indeed, as I am sure Morah Yehudis would agree, Jews have been very successful in overcoming periods of anti-Jewish animus and outright persecution, taking forced expulsions in stride and willingly contributing to whatever new community welcomed expelled Jews (until, it seems, inevitably, the Jews were once again expelled). 

Many pundits have marvelled at our ability to survive our enemies’ attempts to destroy Jews and Judaism. I believe that the secret of our success is not allowing the memory of past persecutions to prevent us from building for the future. This is very apparent in the differing fates of the Mizrachi Jews who were expelled from their homes in the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East and the Arabs (now called “Palestinians”) who fled or were displaced from Palestine in the 1940’s. 

Israel began absorbing and uplifting Mizrachi Jews almost immediately after declaring independence, at a time when food was being rationed, while Israel was also absorbing and  rehabilitating survivors of the Sho’ah, dealing with terrorist incursions from lands then occupied by Egypt and Jordan, and recovering from damages inflicted on Israel by Arab armies. Today, Jews of Mizrahi descent comprise nearly half of Israel’s Jewish population and every position in Israeli governance (except Prime Minister) has been filled, at one time or another, by someone with roots in the Mizrachi communities.

In contrast, Arab countries, with vast land holdings and (some) with oil riches, condemned between 400,000 and 700,000 “Palestine refugees” whose numbers have grown to 6,000,000 on UNWRA rolls. The UN has accepted orders from Arab leaders who seek to turn Israel into a Muslim majority country by insisting that the Palestine “refugees” will be kept in limbo until Israel agrees to give them the homes the “refugees” claim their forebears lost, generations ago. But the sheer number of “refugees” and the fact that they have been taught that killing Jews is a Muslim’s ticket to Heaven, means that accepting these “refugees” would be the death knell of the Jewish State.

Toby F. Block
Atlanta, GA