Today, April 15, 1912, is ninety-seven years since the sinking of the Titanic. The lesson of that disaster, costly in human lives, is not to trust the experts.
Like Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" and other irresponsible and bombastic statements, like Arik Sharon's Disengagement, the Titanic was built to be unsinkable.
And today, we all know that the Titanic sank, and Gush Katif was immediately used by the Arab terrorists to fire rockets at Israel. So, when world leaders and media, even Israeli politicians and media claim that Israel can remain secure and safe with "Two state solution," a sic Palestinian State intertwined in her Land, just think of the Titanic. Most people on the Titanic drowned in the icy sea.
Remember the Titanic!
7 comments:
Speaking of the Titanic, here's a photo I took recently in one of the Antwerp Jewish community's cemeteries, located over the border in Putte, Holland.
Notice the ship ornament on the top of the stone. The inscription reads:
"Here lies the enlightened ("Hamaskil" - hmmmm......) young man (i.e., unmarried) Ya'akov, of blessed memory, son of Yerucham, Birnbaum, of Crakow. He drowned in the breakup of the Titanic on the 28th of Nissan and after 12 days his body was found on the waters. He was brought to burial on Isru Chag Shavuot (that would be the 8th of Sivan outside of Israel), 5662 (1912)."Google: +titanic +birnbaum.
Notes:
1) The reason that the Belgian observant Jewish community burries their deceased in Holland is because of longstanding Belgian laws which allow the reuse of cemetery land for construction after a certain period of time has passed, in total contradiction to Jewish observance of respect for the dead.
2) A little under 40 days passed from the sinking until Birnbaum was finally interred in the cemetery. Perhaps he was temporarily interred elsewhere prior to being brought to his final resting place in a Jewish cemetery.
Correction: the year on the tombstone is 5672 - not 5662.
Shy, thanks so much for the historic tidbit. The family was lucky to have found the body. Most weren't, if I'm not mistaken.
Europe has so many anti-Jewish laws, which people accept. Shechita is forbidden in Switzerland if I got it right. All the kosher meat must be imported at great expense. Remember that during WWII, the Nazis' antisemitic laws weren't protested.
Batya, Belgian's burial laws affect everyone equally.
Most goyim have no interest in keeping kosher but many do not want their loved one's final resting places paved over into a parking lot.
Know when to pick your fights.
True. How popular is cremation there?
I have no idea what the body disposal preferences are of most Belgians. :)
However, it does seem that there are gentile cemeteries outside of Belgium to accomodate people for the same reason.
From one site I saw, Belgian law requires cemetery land to be available for reuse after 49 years.
shy, I just googled it
http://books.google.com/books?id=3z9EpgisKOgC&pg=RA1-PA627&lpg=RA1-PA627&dq=belgium+cremation+statistics&source=bl&ots=3SvfpT2USn&sig=IB5MYbMrd8QgFqRdPufFNJ7Ea3g&hl=iw&ei=DWPnSaf0Oqe1-QaTn6TiBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
The percentage is high, 50% and more and described as "the norm" in some cities.
Simply put, when a society consideres cemeteries temporary and disposable, then the same goes for the bodies.
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