In Poland, due to past experience with Polish security forces and verbal and physical attacks on particiapants, the organizers have arranged to provide their own security, and have "hired a top security person to co-ordinate all aspects of security in Poland as well as in Israel." This part is to be expected given that Poland is a country still quite inhospitable to Jews -- especially Jewish tourists.
But once the trip gets to Israel for the second leg of the tour, the letter explains, "All programs of the March of the Living in Israel will be revised to avoid visiting the West Bank." Knowing that the security situation in Judea and Samaria is questionable at best, this seems to be a reasonable approach when there is a responsibility for over six thousand teens and their advisors. But surely the security provided by the Israeli security forces is at least as good as that provided by the Polish security forces. If special arrangements are being made to augment the security in Poland, why can these arrangements not be extended to Israel as well?
Does the restriction on visiting Judea and Samaria include the Old City of Jerusalem? I would guess that it doesn't. But it certainly does include the Tomb of Rachel. According to rabbinic explanation, one of the reasons Rachel was not buried with the other progenitors of the Jewish nation was so that her grave be a signpost on the road of return to Jerusalem.
What is the March of the Living, if not an observance of our loss as a nation followed by a celebration of our rebirth and return as a nation to our rightful home? Even the scheduling of the trip is set up to this end. The trip spends Yom Hashoa -- Holocaust remembrance day -- marching from Auschwitz to Birkenau: the March of the Living. Then they arrive in Israel in time to celebrate Israeli Independence day in Israel. That the March of the Living refuses to visit perhaps the most important symbol of Jewish return to Israel merely because of the political situation is a blatant manifestation of the Jewish establishment's cowardice in the face of sustained anti-semitism.
That the Jewish Establishment, represented by the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish National Fund, has refused to recognize the Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria as a part of the Jewish homeland of Israel is not news, nor is it secret. For documentation, see "The Haddasah-Marcus Dossier" (available from Dawn Publications in Montreal). For visible proof, look at the mountains on the road to Jerusalem at the next opportunity. Several are green, and several are sand-covered. They are intertwined amongst each other. This is a visible indication of where the old "Green Line" was. A look at a sattelite map of Israel is also sufficient.
What is news, though, is the extent to which this cowardice is being extended to the next generations. The symbolism intended by a trip like the March of the Living is admirable and deserves to be fully supported. But this symbolism is lost if it is not fully exploited. To ignore a symbol of Jewish return as important and noteworthy as the Tomb of Rachel is inexcusable. To wantonly ignore the Jewish presence and control over what amounts to one quarter of Israeli territory merely because of political considerations is simply ludicrous.
Israeli independence, which is celebrated on the second leg of the trip, is at the very least severely wanting when the Israeli government cannot provide security to tourists on a trip of this magnitude. It is of note here that the most pressing factor leading to the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel was the Holocaust. Israeli independence meant that the refugees from Europe now had a place to go. It also meant that never again would the Jews of the world be subject to such blatant hatred and wanton disregard for humanity as was witnessed in Nazi Europe. This is the continuing legacy of Israeli independence to World Jewry.
The March of the Living is a very symbolic trip, as has partly been described earlier herein. But the kind of symbolism shown to the teenagers who are to become future leaders of our communities is misbegotten when the idea they get is that Israel can no longer guarantee the security of Jews. This symbolsim is made even clearer after a trip through the Polish graveyard of European Jewry, which Israel is supposed to remedy. Having just come from there to Israel, and then seeing that Israel cannot remedy Poland, cannot even secure the safety of tourists who have just made the pilgrimage of the European refugees of the past generation, what other message can they receive?
It is incumbent upon the government of Israel to impose conditions whereby Jews need not be afraid to travel and visit any place of the Jewish home. This is especially true of visitors such as these, for whom the haven that is Israel is perhaps much more evidently necessary. It is incumbent upon the Diaspora Jewish establishment to provide the conditions under which Israel can provide such conditions -- under which such conditions will be forced. And it is incumbent upon organizers of trips such as the March of the Living to provide security in areas of Israel that may be dangerous on par with the security provided in other portions of the trip. That such a dichotomy of security planning exists speaks badly of the situation in which the Jewish haven finds itself. Unless these problems are rectified, the Jewish Diaspora is in dire danger. It is high time that Israel show itself to be the protector of Jews that it has sworn to be. Without it, the world's governments can be excused for not caring about our security. This can already be seen in Poland, and it is slowly spreading. The Center for the Inheritance of Jewish Strength should live up to its name and recognize Israel -- all of Israel -- for what it means and represents, and not through the cowardice of conceding to terrorists and their supporters.
Copyright 1994. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
