Livia Sklar’s Genocidal Hatred of Non-Jews
When the Atlanta Jewish Times – an affiliate publication of the Times of Israel – published an opinion piece about Poland and Purim (1) by a senior member of the Zionist women’s organization Hadassah’s Atlanta chapter. (2) Sklar – who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta – (3) and likes to write about her idol Elie Wiesel in glowing terms. (4)
However in her article on Poland and Purim – the annual jewish religious festival that celebrates the mass murder of non-jews – (5) she immediately brings up the central figure of Haman and more specifically his ‘evil lineage’ as a descendent of King Agag of the Amalekites – who are held to be subject to immediate extermination in Judaism and whom are believed to have not yet been wiped out – (6) when she writes:
‘Our sages of the Talmud taught us: “He who becomes compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.” What does that mean?
In modern days we interpret that statement to mean that a forgiving attitude toward one unworthy of forgiveness ultimately constitutes a blow toward the innocent members of society. For example, a government that does not act to suppress terrorism forsakes its obligations toward the safety of its people.
Jews around the world recently celebrated the holiday of Purim. You know that the villain in the story is Haman, but did you know that his full name is Haman the Agagite, meaning the descendant of Agag. Who was Agag?
When the Israelites were wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt, they were attacked by a tribe called the Amalekites. The Israelites survived that encounter, but the incident was not forgotten.
Years later, the Israelites’ first king, Saul, was instructed by G-d through the prophet Samuel to kill all the Amalekites. But Saul, in a misguided compassionate moment, decided to spare Agag, their king.
As the story goes, Samuel killed Agag afterward, but nothing is noted about Agag’s wife and children. So it is possible that one of Agag’s descendants centuries later was Haman the Agagite, whose family might have had their own grudges against the Jews.
Saul’s misplaced compassion and failure to wipe out the family of King Agag of Amalek cost him the kingship of Israel and almost resulted in the extermination of the Jews when Haman the Agagite persuaded the Persian king Ahasuerus to issue a proclamation against the lives of all the Jews in the Persian Empire.
The lesson is that compassion is not always in our best interest when it comes to our enemies. We need to identify our enemies and hold them responsible. We need to be vigilant about those who are anti-Semitic and wish to destroy us, even today.’ (7)
In summary what Sklar is explaining here is that King Saul was too merciful to the evil enemy of the jews King Agag of the Amalekites because he shared his life, while the Prophet Samuel had the right idea when he committed what was arguably the first jewish ritual murder. (8) This Sklar applies to Haman and Purim through the events of the Book of Esther and the subsequent religious festival in Judaism: Purim.
Sklar then clearly links the mass murder of the enemies of the jews and the idea that to be merciful to them – as King Saul was to King Agag – is the wrong thing to do, while murdering them without compunction – as the Prophet Samuel did to King Agag – is the best course of action when dealing with the enemies of the jews.
She then goes on to link the recent fiasco concerning Poland standing up to jewish emotional, diplomatic and intellectual blackmail with this need to ‘fight back’ against the descendants of King Agag like Haman.
To wit:
‘The lesson is that compassion is not always in our best interest when it comes to our enemies. We need to identify our enemies and hold them responsible. We need to be vigilant about those who are anti-Semitic and wish to destroy us, even today.
Almost at the same time as we were celebrating Purim, a law was enacted in Poland criminalizing free speech about what happened there during the Holocaust. It imposes fines and prison time for anyone who claims that Poland or the Polish people bore any responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis on Polish soil.
The Israeli government and many Holocaust survivors fear that the true aim of this law is to repress research and debate about Poles and to make it impossible for Polish historians to discuss and record history accurately.
We know there is a long history of anti-Semitism in Poland, predating and postdating the German occupation during World War II. Anti-Semitism was a traditional feature of Polish political and economic life.
That anti-Semitic sentiment enabled many Poles to accept Nazi racial theories and persecute the Jews as vigorously as did the Germans. Jews in at least a dozen Polish towns were killed by the Polish Home Guard, which was the dominant Polish resistance movement under Nazi occupation.
The March of the Living, a leading Holocaust education program, issued a statement deeply regretting the passage by the Polish parliament of this new law. Although the March of the Living begged the president of Poland to refrain from signing the bill into law, he did not accede to their request, and the law took effect.
Hadassah also issued a statement protesting the Polish law and affirming Hadassah’s stand with the government of Israel, saying, “we have no tolerance for distorting the truth, for rewriting history or for Holocaust denial.”
By supporting Hadassah, we not only benefit from its ongoing, lifesaving care and medical research; we also benefit as Jews who are opposed to anti-Semitism, fighting it wherever in the world new Hamans arise and seek to annihilate us.’ (9)
So, in other words what Sklar is saying is that jews should support Hadassah, because Hadassah – unlike say other jewish organisations that it is competition with – will do what King Saul couldn’t and the Prophet Samuel could. If anyone criticises the jews and/or ‘seeks to annihilate them’ – which is a rather wide grouping but is what Sklar is using as her frame of reference (i.e. criticism of the jews = anti-Semitism = desire to exterminate jews) then they must be swiftly exterminated before they get the chance to enact their ‘anti-Semitic’ agenda of recreating Auschwitz.
References
(1) http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/sklar-purim-poland-remind-us-to-know-our-enemies/
(2) http://www.hadassah.org/regions/southeastern/chapters/greater-atlanta/groups/metulla/leadership/livia-sklar.html
(3) https://nuwber.com/person/563a3f2fe0cd4806cbe0a9ec
(4) http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/wiesel-champion-cause-humanity/
(5) See Elliot Horowitz, 2007, ‘Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence’, 1st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, pp. 107-146
(6) Shalom Carny, 2007, ‘The Origin of Nations and the Shadow of Violence: Theological Perspectives on Canaan and Amalek’, p. 173 in Lawrence Schiffman, Joel Wolowelsky, 2007, ‘War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition’, 1st Edition, Yeshiva University Press: New York
(7) http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/sklar-purim-poland-remind-us-to-know-our-enemies/
(8) Per the comments of Johann von Leers in Hellmut, Schramm, 1943, ‘Der Judische Ritualmord: Eine Historische Untersuchung’, 1st Edition, Theodor Fritsch Verlag: Berlin, pp. xiii-xiv
(9) http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/sklar-purim-poland-remind-us-to-know-our-enemies/