by Sylvia Mandelbaum
Why have I been so silent these last few years while there were so many changes made in the government, events which normally shake me to my roots? I find my day appalling so much so that I feel I must speak out now.
First I want to ask a few questions:
(1) Where is our old stamina?
(2) Why do we allow things to happen to us that we wouldn't ordinarily allow?
(3) Are we going uphill or are we going downhill?
Now we have to answer the questions.
Our old stamina? I think it's worn out. Even though we haven't used it lately – it's worn out. In order for something to remain alive it has to be used but not abused.
Because I think we are worn out we need a new angle. We need a new reason. That is our secret. We have always been able to renew ourselves but these days we seem to have failed. We sit back and hope it will correct itself. But this is wrong. It doesn't happen by itself. It takes power. It takes willpower. It takes belief and we have become lax. We have forgotten how to renew our faith. We have forgotten right from wrong. We allow everybody and anybody to direct us. We don't know ourselves where we are heading. So if we do not know how can we lead our people? We have always been considered a good people. Please God, bring us back to the right track so that we may regain our prestige in the world.
Sylvia Mandelbaum, author of books and articles and former resident of Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif. Though now a nursing home resident,
"at my age I don't feel like retiring because I still have a lot of work that I haven't finished."
6 comments:
You are right. We have lost our will. We have learned the hard way that there are some things we cannot change. All the words, demonstrations belief in who used to be "right" politicians and yes, even the prayers did absolutely no good. We have a government which doesn't care about anybody. Not Gush Katif, Not Jerusalem, not Israel not the homeless or the students only themselves. And we have given up expecting any more.
Sylvia, you are right. but the question is, where do we go from here? I am looking forward to your next article.
Dear Roberta,
You are absolutly right.
But as long as we have hope in ourselves we can correct things.
We must do it immediately.
We cannot show the other side that they are free to do whatever they want.
Sylvia Mandelbaum
b'h
Dear Sylvia, we are fighting back in other ways - having children, building new communities and being strong in our Yiddishkeit. We saw that our protests did nothing to stop Clinton-Bush-Sharon-Olmert....but we we are not passive!
With love,
Miriam
Dear Miriam,
I like your response.
We need more people like you to respond openly.
Sylvia Mandelbaum
I'm so happy that Syvia is blogging here. I remember reading her articles in the Jewish Press many years ago.
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