RABBI HIER:THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Rabbi Hier gets it. he understand the enemy. Following a visit to Holocaust sites in Europe, Rabbi Hier came to Los Angeles to create the Simon Wiesenthal Center.What is so striking about Rabbi's Hier's speech is despite witnessing the horrors of the holocaust, he warns that Islam is worse.
"The world has never experienced such a plague of darkness like the plague of Islamic fundamentalism that reveres death over life – that teaches young people that the preferred way to get to heaven is by murdering and maiming. Even the worst murderers in the history of mankind, the Nazis, who gassed millions - for themselves would do anything to live another day"

Fund for surviving child of slaughtered rabbi: (hat tip Randall via  Michael Savage)
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Chabad India
Moshe Holtzberg Foundation
770 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11213

The Simon Wiesenthal Center - this just about sums it up for me.

COMMUNITY MEMORIAL FOR RABBI GAVRIEL HOLTZBERG AND RIVKA
Delivered by Rabbi Marvin Hier(hat tip wolf)

Chabad House, Westwood - November 30, 2008

What is there to say or speak? What has become of our world? First, let me express my heartfelt sympathy to all the victims in Mumbai of this horrific attack – Jews and non-Jews, the families of the murdered, the maimed and the traumatized.

Every Saturday night when Shabbat concludes, Jews around the world make a special blessing, “Blessed are you Almighty…who has separated the holy from the secular – light from darkness.” Never has there been such a clear distinction between the world of light and the world of darkness.

In one community, a wonderful 29-year-old Rav Gavriel Holtzberg and his 28-year-old wife Rivka, of blessed memory, were in their Chabad house and what were they doing my friends? Helping people – meals for strangers, places to stay for travelers, counseling for the downtrodden and forgotten, Kosher food and a place to pray and study for those seeking spiritual sustenance.

They could have stayed in Israel or in the United States. They had a child who died of genetic illness and another who is hospitalized with the same ailment. They had no political motivations – all they wanted to do was work hard for a better world.

On the other hand, the young men who came by boat - they too had a task – who should they murder? Should it be the doctor making his hospital rounds, nurses at their stations, a mother shopping for her family, a grandmother walking near the hotel with her grandchild or anyone who just happened to look in their direction?

The world has never experienced such a plague of darkness like the plague of Islamic fundamentalism that reveres death over life – that teaches young people that the preferred way to get to heaven is by murdering and maiming. Even the worst murderers in the history of mankind, the Nazis, who gassed millions - for themselves would do anything to live another day. That’s what Eichmann and Mengele did when they were on the run.

The world should be very clear – achieving martyrdom by killing innocent civilians is an abomination – it is a concept that desecrates religion, denigrates humankind, and defames G-d himself.

But it is not only the terrorists who bear the responsibility – it is the religious leaders who programmed them, inspired them, and sent them, who are equally culpable. Joseph Goebbels and Julius Streicher never killed anyone – but they were named as war criminals at Nuremberg because on a daily basis, they poisoned the minds of tens of millions of Germans. That is exactly what the Imams of the Islamic Fundamentalists do.

The world must not remain silent. We have the tools to at least do something. The United Nations must make suicide terror a priority. Why is it that the General Assembly can call special sessions on drug cartels, on AIDs, on disarmament, on apartheid – all crucial issues – but it has not yet called for a special session on the greatest crime of the 21st century – suicide terror?

The other day, I saw someone on television making the point that we must understand the grievances of the terrorists – that the world has neglected them. My friends, if there is anyone who has grievances in history – it should be the Jewish people and, particularly, the generation of survivors of the Holocaust – who witnessed 1/3 of world Jewry gassed and murdered. They too had grievances – but did you ever see children of survivors blowing up hospitals, hotels, schools, and restaurants?

Yet what was their reaction? They picked themselves up by the bootstraps, taught themselves how to smile and love again, educated their children to dignify the world and not to destroy it – to contribute to it and not to demean it.

In keeping with that tradition, I’m sure that 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg who was miraculously saved, who has no parents to bar mitzvah him or to escort him to his wedding, will learn about his parents and will grow up following in their footsteps – teaching kindness and love and finding good in people.

And to you, the supporters of the terrorists, wherever you are – your concept may be new, but we’ve seen your prototype before – you’re not the first to threaten our humanity. For 3,500 years, we’ve seen your likes during the pogroms, the Inquisition and the Holocaust and we’ve never changed our belief.

To use a metaphor that is appropriate for the forthcoming Chanukah festival -  that one cruise of light that emanated from of the Chabad house in Mumbai has contributed more to humanity than your whole ideology and way of life. The Jewish people whom you seek to destroy will still be here – long after you and your haters have been deposited in the dustbins of history.

Comments

[George Mc.]

What a moving memorial by the Rabbi. It is an abomination that the memorial had to be given at all. Those two young people should still be alive today and would be but for the Orwellian named "religion of peace." How can anyone justify doing what these people are doing, not just in Mumbai, but in different attacks on non-Muslims every single day all over the world? How much longer must we suffer these attacks before the scales drop from our political leader's eyes? Unless and until we recognize the threat of Islam, we are doomed to live with these kinds of attacks on a regular basis from now until doomsday. It is frustrating that our leaders all seem to be so clueless.

May the Holtzbergs find the peace in Heaven that is so lacking on this good earth so long as Islam lives.

[jj]

friends:

years ago, i bought a genius for a coffee cup. always, in times like this, i have a cup of coffee from it, and hold it, and absorb life giving warmth, and feel that warmth upon my cheeks and eyes, as now.

i take so much comfort from the wisdom of this cup.--

"there are in the end three things that last-- faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love." 1 corinthians, 13:4-7, 13

our faith will see us all the way through to the conquest and death of islam, and the hate and death it spews.

let us hope that it is sooner and later, and that we can put an end to these tragedies, without delay.

and when we emerge from this, we will have been sustained by our love for each other; in the simple and profound pleasures and joys that we take from and give to one another; in our love of country; in our love of that which is good and holy; and in the reciprocal love between our father & lord, and us as his obedient servants. for, we serve good, and justice, and might and triumph, as we serve g_d.

our love and sustenance, one to the other, together with our dreams, and our faith in our almighty g_d, will lead us to triumph over evil.

this i hope & pray. in this i have faith. and in this i am blessed by the love and benificance of g_d, and by your great affection. we shall prevail, my friends, because we believe in love, and in good, and because we live that way and sustain one the other.

john jay

[kobi]

excellent, thanks for posting this, pamela.

this should have many more readers..

i love it where he talks about the media saying we should listen to the grievances of the terrorists...and then he says the survivors of the shoah had grievances but they taught themselves how to love and be kind again and taught their children to dignify the world and uplift it.

Gd bless rabbi marvin hier!!!

[Zero]

Stunning. What an awesome display of grace and dignity. I got goose bumps reading that.

FountainheadZeroJoin the irate minority.

[DP111]

Even the worst murderers in the history of mankind, the Nazis, who gassed millions - for themselves would do anything to live another day. That’s what Eichmann and Mengele did when they were on the run.

I have written about this before. The Nazis were evil, but even they did not have the gall to think that they were going to be rewarded in heaven for their crimes. They tried hard to hide what they were doing, thus instinctively and deep down, they knew that were doing evil.

But from Muslim murderers and beheaders, there is no such remorse or attempt to hide their evil acts, which would atleast indicate some kind of morality. On the contrary, they revel in their evil acts, not just in private but even when they are in a court of law.

As for the moderate Muslims, all they do is whine - in effect, taking the media spotlight off their evil compatriots, so that the spotlight does not swing to the ideology of the murdering Jihadis. They are complicit.

What is clear, is that the so called moderate muslim community provides shelter in the community to the Jihadis, but they also provide two other key elements in the violent Jihad

1. They immediately start to whine and moan, thus taking way the spotlight from where it should go next - the koran and the hadiths, which are the ideological well springs of the Jihadis.

2. By their incessant whining and moaning, they also take away for themselves, the sympathy that should really be directed to the genuine victims. Note how much attention is paid to the "suffering" Muslims whose peaceful religion has been perverted. This is truly shameful.

The moderate Muslim is a key element in the violent Jihad - whether it is knowingly or not, I'm not certain.