A Very Modern Pogrom

Amsterdam 2024

Almost 86 years ago to the day, a pogrom unfolded in Europe. On November 9, 1938, the Nazis organized a massive pogrom against the Jews of Germany. Just before midnight, Gestapo Chief Heinrich Muller sent a telegram to all police units telling them that “in shortest order, actions against Jews and especially their synagoges will take place in all of Germany. These are not to be interfered with.” The police were to arrest the victims. Fire companies were to stand by and watch Jewish buildings burn. They were to intervene only if a fire threatened an Aryan building.

Over the next few days and nights, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned and/or damaged. 7,500 Jewish businesses were ransacked and looted. At least 91 Jews were killed, and Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries were vandalized. 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen, which were expanded to accommodate the new arrivals.

That pogrom was called Kristallnacht in German, the Night of the Broken Glass.

Beennacht

In the early morning hours of November 8, 2024, the Prime Minister of Israel - the world’s only Jewish State - ordered two planes flown from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam to rescue Jews and Israeli citizens, victims of the latest modern pogrom.

I’ll call in Beennacht in Dutch, the Night of the Broken Bones.

After a football game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Amsterdam Ajax (Tel Aviv lost 5-0), what appears to have been a clearly organized pogrom was unleashed against Israeli fans heading back to their hotels.

Though at the time of writing this, the reports are just coming out and the full-extent of the attack is unclear (I’ll undertake to correct errors if they become apparent as the news continues to break), the eyewitness testimony and stories are already harrowing. According to some sources:

“[The attackers] gathered in groups of 5-10 in every alley and every central exit from different train stations, around Dam Square, and especially in the streets of the Israeli hotels.”

“They had precise information on where to wait, and as soon as they recognized Israelis, they jumped on them with knives, clubs, pocket knives, and there are also reports of incidents of being run over by cars with Palestinian flags on them.”

“The police left the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans at the exit from the Johan Cruyff Arena, and in fact, the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans did not receive any police escort from the moment they boarded the trains and made their way to the hotels.”

“It took the police almost an hour and a half for vehicles to arrive and supposedly "intervene" in what was going on, but many fans still recorded police vehicles standing idly by and doing nothing to the Arab crowd that was next to the attacks, also throwing countless firecrackers into hotels where Israelis who fled the street were hiding.”

“The Dutch police sold us so that the Arabs would lynch us," tells me one of the fans who managed to escape after a particularly scary hour and arrive at the Amsterdam airport covered in blood and injured."

Mobs of Islamists in Amsterdam are hunting Jews. The Jewish victims have been run over, beaten, and stabbed. Without overt police support, and given the broad attack on different streets, many Israelis have banded together and have started to fight back, protecting themselves.

There is word that some in Israel have called their loved ones in Amsterdam, only to have had Arabic speakers answer the phones. This is eerily reminiscent of the news on 10/7 when Israelis tracked family members’ phones to Gaza City and Jabaliya while the owners were taken hostage.

Meanwhile, in the heart of Western Europe, the mob is beating up Jews, forcing them to say “Free Palestine” or “Free Gaza” before they can be freed. Israeli flags are being burned on the streets, and it appears the police are doing little crowd control. As of the time of writing, Jews have been thrown into the city’s canals, at least 10 have been seriously injured, and at least two are missing.

In 1939, there were 130,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands. Today, there are only 30,000 left, and the Israelis are on their way to rescue those who need it.

Lech Lecha

Now I write the following words as a Jew living in the Diaspora, but here it goes:

The parsha this week is Lech Lecha, often translated as “Go forth.” It is the part in the Torah where God commands Abraham to go forth, from the land of his father, to the Land of Israel, where God will make him and his descendants a great nation.

But that’s not actually what Lech Lecha means. In Hebrew, it actually translates to “Go for you.”

According to the Medieval French commentator Rashi, the semantics means, “Go for your sake, for your benefit.” Abraham was not simply being commanded to go somewhere, but to go to a specific place - the Land of Israel - where God intended to make him and his family a great nation. God intended to do something for them, to their benefit, but only there - in that place. The Rabbinic tradition also notes that saying “lecha,” for you, “speaks of action that is not to be repeated but is final and ultimate.” God was not telling them to stop somewhere temporarily and see if the place fits their lifestyle. Nor is he telling them to go to different places until they find the right fit. No. He is ordering them to a specific place where they, and their children, and their grandchildren, will remain. Forever. Thus, God did not just tell Abraham to go, He told Abraham to leave his past life behind, to leave his family, even blot out his memories of the past, and emigrate entirely, in body, soul, and mind, to a new place. Forever.

This is the parsha we will read this Shabbat, when Israeli planes have been sent on an emergency rescue mission to Amsterdam of all places - not Sudan, not Ethiopia, not Beirut - Amsterdam, to rescue Jews, and to bring them home. To Israel.

This week, we are reminded that God promised the Land of Israel to us for our benefit. It was to be a place of refuge, and a place in which we would grow to be great. At times like this, we remember what a world without Israel once looked like, and how critical a role Israel can play in our lives today. We are no longer the cowering Jews we once were, as we have a powerful state of our own that exists, that can come to our rescue if needed, and which stands in opposition to all those voices in the world who have had enough of us.

I write this reluctantly as a Diaspora Jew because I love my home in Canada. But on nights like this, with fellow Jews suffering on streets that look a lot like mine right here at home, my mind obviously wanders to that insurance policy that was first issued almost 4,000 years ago, that was re-authorized 76 years ago, and which continues to protect us and our families each and every single day.

May those under attack be swiftly rescued, and those perpetrators be brought to justice.

Am Yisrael Chai

Join our community this coming Sunday Nov 10 at 3pm at the Rally for Humanity. As always, and now more than ever, we are stronger together: