Amalek Lives!

I am not so naïve as to suggest that anti-Semitism does not exist; I know it does. Still, sometimes something happens that just drives the point home as to home strong it is.

A few days ago I was working on putting a lesson plan together for Hebrew school. I was on the internet and entered a few key words dealing with famous Jews. A number of sites came up as a result of my search, many that were usable. There was also one site that came up that was basically a site promoting anti-Semitism.

As I said before, I know it exists, and I know such websites exist. Still, when you come across one and read the misinformation and lies on the site, it is amazing. It basically look to perpetuate every negative myth and stereotype about Jews. All Jews are rich it proclaims and Jews control the world’s money. It brought to mind an old Archie Bunker line from All in the Family where Mike (The son-in-law) says, “Not all Jews have money,” and Archie responds, “I’ve never meet one who doesn’t”.

The difference of course is, while many people took him seriously, Archie Bunker was a character designed to show just how foolish such opinions were and how ignorant people were who had this belief. Years ago when I worked in the Bible Belt, a co-worker (who had never come across Jew in his life) commented that I was nothing like what he imagined based from the stereotypes and he wanted to know how they got started.

The site goes on to say that Jews are liars and cheaters. It goes so far as to praise Hitler for trying to fix the problem of the Jews. It is scary to see such hatred and ignorance.

We have just finished reading the story of Purim. I would like to believe we have come a long way. Unfortunately we haven’t. Amalek still lives!