Monday, April 12, 2010

Holocaust Memorial

Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon. Benjamin Disraeli
You call me a damned Jew. My race was old when you were all savages. I am proud to be a Jew. John Galsworthy, Loyalties, Act ii
The sufferance, which is the badge of the Jew, has made him, in these days, the ruler of the rulers of the earth. Emerson, Conduct of Life: Fate
Suavity toward the Jews! Although you have lived among them, it is evident that you little understand those enemies of the human race. Haughty and at the same time base, combining an invincible obstinacy with a spirit despicably mean, they weary alike your love and your hatred. Anatole France, The Procurator of Judea
When people talk about a wealthy man of my creed, they call him an Israelite; but if he is poor they call him a Jew. Heinrich Heine
Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels and Heretics. Book of Common Prayer: Good Friday
If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew. Albert Einstein: Address, Sorbonne
A hopeless faith, a homeless race,
Yet seeking the most holy place,
And owning the true bliss ...
Or like pale ghosts that darkling roam,
Hovering around their ancient home,
But find no refuge there.
John Keble: The Christian Year
Still on Israel's head forlorn,
Every nation heaps its scorn.
Emma Lazarus: The World's Justice

Every Jew alive today is a living testament to the spirit of hope residing in every human soul. All Jews alive today are testimony to that peoples' destiny, defying the scorn and slander heaped upon it by a world enraged that the ancient Israelites had the temerity to declare their faith in one Spirit upon whom the light of reason shone brightly. All the descendants throughout the millennia have struggled to maintain their identity as a light unto the world, if not to themselves. They have paid dearly for their belief in themselves and their collective right to exist, and that struggle continues to this very day; it will continue to pose a threat to the collective existence of global Jewry living uneasily in a Jew-hostile world. This sentiment does not express the pathology of neurosis, but rather the understanding of reality experienced and imbibed.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgement. Bacon: Advancement of Learning
There is in hell a place stone-built throughout
Called Malebolge, of an iron hue,
Like to the wall that circles it about.
(Loco e inferno detto Malebolge,
Tutto di pietra e di color ferrigno,
Comela cerchia che d' intorno il volge.P) Dante: Inferno
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd
In one self-place; for where we are is hell;
And where hell is, there must we ever be;
And to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are not heaven.
Christopher Marlowe: Faustus
A dungeon horrible on all sides round
As one great furnace flam'd yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible,
Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,
regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end.
Milton: Paradise Lost

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