This week in Jewish history | German authorities began deporting Dutch Jews worldjewishcongress.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from worldjewishcongress.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hans Achterhuis in Amsterdam, Aug. 27, 2017. (Wikimedia Commmons)
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AMSTERDAM (JTA) The Netherlands’ foremost philosopher called the dispersal of Jews in the Diaspora a “blessing” because it prevented them from achieving the power they have in Israel today that has resulted in “religiously motivated violence.”
Hans Achterhuis, the first recipient of the prestigious and royally recognized title of “thinker of the Fatherland,” made the remarks in an interview on the role of religion in the modern state for Trouw, which the paper published on Thursday, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial day.
“As terrible as the story of the Jews has been, it was still in a certain sense a blessing that they were dispersed in the Diaspora. They had no power and therefore no possibility of exercising religiously motivated violence. And one sees how it can go wrong if that power does exist, in the State of Israel,” Achterhuis said.
Mazel tov! The whole shtetl buzzed with the news. Chanka, the butcherâs daughter, was engaged to Yankel, the carpenterâs son. It was a local match, so the whole town got involved in the wedding preparations. A week before the wedding, Chanka could be found sewing the last few stitches on he…
Leading Dutch philosopher: Diaspora a blessing because it kept Jews from power timesofisrael.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofisrael.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Scene Around
Judge MERRICK GARLAND is President BIDEN S pick for attorney general of the United States.
Judge Garland is Jewish. His grandparents fled Europe and anti-Semitism. The United States took them in, he said. I want to pay back by serving. (He broke down, suppressing tears.) I m not here to serve the president. I m here for the people.
(I hope he will be voted in.)
Also.
My eldest son, Navy Commander DAVID and his wife, JOLENE, have many Great Danes in their family. I am grandma for sure . and proud of it!
(Don t they look like me??)
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