Segregating the Segregated
My kids and I were watching "42 , The Jackie Robinson Story" the other day. It took place in the 60's when black Americans were segregated from the whites. They watched the baseball games from their own section of the stadium marked "Colored". As I was watching this movie, I couldn't help notice the comparison of Israeli vax vs unvaxed rights.
We became second class citizens over night. We are either sent to a separate section or not allowed at all. At sporting events, resturaunts, museums, concerts, travel and an increasing host of other places.
Will we be made to use separate bathrooms? Separate planes? Live in separate neighborhoods? Use separate public pools? Will we create a separate army? Will intermarriage be allowed? Will there be signs? Police to enforce our segregation? Will it begin to branch off, just as there are separate branches of religious observance, will "vax" become branched? Each with it's own level of acceptance? (I can assume the answer to these questions, I'm just wondering if anyone else has thought that far ahead?)
How did we get here? How did we go along with this up until now? For years we've had groups fighting for equal rights for Arabs and gay rights groups. To make sure that they have citizenship, work, due process, education, land rights, government representatives, free speech etc the exact same as the Jews who live here. Where are these groups who fight for the minorities against oppression. Do they choose who they fight for? Or is it chosen for them? Aren't we all worth fighting for?
This is how hate begins. One group puts themselves on an upper tier of society while oppressing another. In this case , it's not color of skin, it's technology under the skin. Do you have it? (good) Or don't you? (bad) Israeli touts itself as "democratic" . Yet there is nothing democratic in Israeli's continued response to "corona".
Jews have been segregated over and over and over again in many countries throughout history. From Egypt to Rome, from Greece to Europe. Jews have been exploited, segregated and singled out to be the blame for one thing or another.
We came to Israel to start a new with Jewish pride and knowing we had nothing to hide here. We contribute our know-how to build a nation where we're free to be Jewish however we each choose to express that.
But here we find ourselves in 2021 not free, but once again segregated. Apart from our Jewish brothers because we choose not to inject experimental poisons into our body. We choose to see health in our own individual way and take care of ourselves and our families' differently, but just as or even more effective (and proven effectiveness) than mystery ingredients.
Throughout the history of the world, this has always been the case. each person is responsible for his or her own health and has never been punished or segregated for their decisions. Jews have always been independent thinkers. We think critically and creatively and we come up with solutions. This has served us well and has put many Jews in positions of power and influence.
If we had just followed leaders and followed orders, we wouldn't have scientific breakthroughs, innovative ideas, Nobel prizes, or our own country built on Jewish brain and brawn.