In Memoriam, In Acknowledgement | Perfume Posse

I had a post written. It went out the window. Instead, we’re here.

In memoriam for the Jews and non-Jews murdered in Australia marking the festival of light, Hanukkah.

In memoriam for the people murdered at Brown University in Rhode Island in the US.

We lit the menorah last night and said the equivalent of a blessing (I’m not religious – just a culturally strong Jew) for those who lost their lives.

They are gone and I weep for their loved ones.

In acknowledgement … Well, for the gentleman, Ahmed al Ahmed, who runs a fruit shop and is a husband and father, who risked his own life to disarm one of the Bondi gunmen. Not Jewish – just someone with courage and a good heart.

From his actions I am reminded of the German man who worked for my grandparents in the late 1930s in the town where they lived in southern Germany. He wasn’t Jewish but on Kristallnacht (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht if you’re not familiar) he protected my grandparents and my mother. They survived and were able to flee Nazi Germany soon after.

Both of them are among the righteous.

I refuse to say the stock phrases. Am I angry? Yes. Do I think this sort of hatred can be defeated, yes again. But it’s not going to be simple or easy and it’s not going to come from politicians anywhere. It’s on all of us – the small and big things will come from us.

Pics: wiki

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