{"id":32593,"date":"2024-12-04T08:50:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=32593"},"modified":"2024-12-04T08:53:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T13:53:33","slug":"genocide-what-does-it-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/04\/genocide-what-does-it-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"“GENOCIDE” — WHAT DOES IT MEAN?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\nThis essay was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

“Genocide” — what does it mean?<\/p>\n

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS,<\/strong><\/span> Ohio — Sean Martin, the assistant curator for Jewish history at the Western Reserve Historical Society, once taught an online course called \u201cComparative Genocide.\u201d The course was offered through Gratz College, in Philadelphia. I said to Sean, \u201cI think Don DeLillo wrote about Hitler Studies in a novel. That was a novel<\/em>. \u2018Comparative Genocide,\u2019 is that a real course?\u201d It was. (This was 13 years ago.) Now it\u2019s called \u201cGenocide in the Modern World.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGenocide\u201d \u2013 the word \u2013 what does it mean?<\/p>\n

Pope Francis, in his new book, says that Israel\u2019s retaliation in Gaza should be investigated to determine if it meets the legal definition of genocide. Patricia Heaton — a former Clevelander, Catholic, and TV actor \u2013 said the pope should \u201clook up the definition of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heaton also said on \u201cElizabeth Vargas Reports\u201d that, \u201cIsrael is trying to find the hostages, release them, take out the Hamas leaders and end the war.\u201d She said, \u201cIt\u2019s time for every American, and in particular Christians, to stand up and make sure our representatives know they have to help Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

(Illustration by Ralph Solonitz)<\/p><\/div>\n

The word<\/strong><\/span> \u201cgenocide\u201d was coined by a Polish Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, in 1944. He ingeniously combined the Greek \u201cgenos\u201d (tribe) and Latin \u201ccide\u201d (killing). Genocide, he wrote, is the slaughter and attempted elimination of a people, a culture, an ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Killing a lot of people \u2013 is that genocide? It\u2019s most often war. For instance, America bombed Germany. That was war. Germany sidetracked its military effort specifically to gas Jews-for-being-Jews. That was genocide.<\/p>\n

I visited an old college friend, John, in Chicago. His front door had a poster, \u201cStop the Genocide in Gaza.\u201d We talked about old times. Toward the end of our what\u2019s-up conversation, I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s with the sign?\u201d He had gotten it from the radical group Jewish Voices for Peace, so the sign was \u201ckosher,\u201d John said. John isn\u2019t Jewish.<\/p>\n

One question, John: If the Israelis are committing genocide, why are there some 7 million Palestinians in the Middle East today, including more than 2 million in Gaza alone? There had been about 1.2 million Palestinians in 1947. Israel is doing a lousy job of committing genocide, apparently. I didn\u2019t mention any of this to John because I was timid.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, I finally spoke up — at a Cuyahoga County Council meeting downtown. I spoke during the \u201cpublic comment\u201d portion. Granted, speaking to 11 somewhat-bored council members was a lot less fraught than telling an old friend where to go. The council members probably would have preferred hearing about countywide childhood mental-health issues or summer youth-employment programs, but a lot of commenters wanted to talk Israel\/Gaza. I said to the council, \u201cSome people think there are three kinds of Jews: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Wrong. There are these three types: American Jews, Israeli Jews, and victims of the Holocaust. Six million to 7 million each. We don\u2019t want the Jews of Israel to be wiped out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The county<\/strong><\/span> has invested $16 million in Israel Bonds. (The bonds aren\u2019t a gift. The county gets the money back plus interest.) Some anti-Israel speakers used the word \u201cgenocide.\u201d A woman talked about local issues \u2013 and even used the word \u201cgenocide.\u201d She said, \u201cThink about the genocide here in Cleveland with the homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have repeatedly said \u2013 and acted on \u2013 their desire to eliminate Israel — the one Jewish state, home to half the Jews in the world.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s genocide. Update your dictionary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This essay was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer last week . . . “Genocide” — what does it mean? CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Sean Martin, the assistant curator for Jewish history at the Western Reserve Historical Society, once taught an online course called \u201cComparative Genocide.\u201d The course was offered through Gratz College, in Philadelphia. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32593"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32598,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32593\/revisions\/32598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}