Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Jerry Engel is a local Jewish man who is deeply concerned about growing antisemitism around the world. Many of Jerry’s family members were murdered in the Holocaust. He preserves their memory by fighting antisemitism and promoting compassion and outstanding citizenship. He has been committed to this task for as long as I have known him, which is nearly my entire life.
Jerry felt compelled to speak out as a result of this morally upside-down world in which we find ourselves, especially since Oct. 7. And I am compelled to publish his heartfelt concerns that were written based on a lifetime of experience and growing fears that what happened to his generation as children could happen again.
Generational context, life experience and a voice rooted in reason are needed more today, not less. Jerry’s words appear below and I thank him for writing them. — Brian Greenspun
Jerry Engel
My name is Jerry Engel and I am a proud 93-year-old Jew who has lived in Las Vegas for 70 years (since 1953).
Despite my age and Jewish identity, I am not a Holocaust survivor, and I am grateful that I have never experienced organized antisemitism here in Las Vegas. I thank God every day because he guided my mother and father to leave Europe in 1922 and come to America. Unfortunately, many of my family members were not so blessed. When war broke out in Europe in 1939, my mother could only raise enough money to bring one sister to America. Five of my uncles and aunts — my mother’s brothers and sisters — were killed in the Holocaust.
One of my closest friends in Las Vegas is a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor named Ben Lesser. From 1940 (when Ben was just 11 years old) to 1945, he lived a nightmare, losing both parents, two brothers and a sister to Nazi persecution. Since then, Ben has devoted his life to preventing the world from getting amnesia about the holocaust.
Ben regularly discusses the uncomfortable reality that, in addition to the atrocities committed by the Nazis, Jews also suffered from the silence of people around the world who knew what the Germans were doing but said nothing. Had more people, especially world leaders, objected strongly at the time, it is likely that many of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis may have survived.
That is why I will not remain silent.
I am shocked and disappointed with how the world is criticizing Israel for the war in Gaza. Antisemitism has taken over justice and corrupted the facts to make Israel the inhumane aggressor and a terrorist organization, and Hamas the victims.
In the weeks since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack, Israel Defense Forces have taken extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties. Just as in previous conflicts, Israel has repeatedly dropped millions of leaflets preemptively informing Palestinian civilians and combatants alike of impending targets and warning civilians to leave the area.
Working with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Israel has also provided fuel to distribute aid throughout the war-torn territory and to power essential infrastructure such as desalination plants, water pumps, sewage and wastewater treatment facilities and electrical generators for hospitals.
And now, Israel has agreed to a four-day pause in fighting to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and to facilitate the exchange of 50 hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
It is more than most countries have done when responding to a violent attack on their homeland, and Israel has done it all despite the fact that Hamas has been credibly accused of using schools and hospitals as military command centers, and will continue, even after the prisoner exchange, to hold more than 150 hostages. Most of the hostages held by Hamas are civilians, and several of them have turned up dead in the weeks since the terrorist group’s unprovoked attack.
Despite their care, Israel is being accused of war crimes due to the deaths of 5,000 to 10,000 innocent Palestinian civilians who were caught in the crossfire of the conflict. However, credible reports indicate that Hamas has been intentionally preventing civilians from escaping the carnage of the war in order to inspire sympathy and encourage criticism of Israel. It’s disgusting, but unsurprising given that Hamas is an extremist organization that benefits from Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces.
Conflict has defined the relationship between Arabs and Israeli Jews since the creation of Israel in 1948, when the Arab world refused to accept the U.N. partition plan. It took less than 24 hours after the formal founding of Israel for a coalition of Arab states to invade the newly created country, launching the First Arab Israeli War. Since then, violence has escalated to warlike proportions in 1956, 1967, 1973 and 2000. Israel was successful in each conflict.
In 1988, the state of Palestine was created when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared sovereignty over the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. With the 1991 signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. As a result, the PLO renounced terrorism and recognized Israel’s right to exist. As of this year, 72% of the members of the United Nations recognize the state of Palestine.
Yet none of that history or recognition prevented Palestinians from electing members of Hamas, an organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, to govern Gaza in 2006. While there are legitimate questions about whether modern Palestinians continue to support Hamas, the organization’s original covenant clearly spelled out its genocidal intentions, even 17 years ago.
Then came the vicious terrorist attacks of Oct. 7. Given the barbarism of that day, it is understandable why Israel is seeking nothing less than the complete destruction of Hamas. Israel is fighting for its right to exist. For those who are survivors of the Holocaust or children or family members of victims of the Holocaust, “never again” must mean NEVER AGAIN.
I admit to being prejudiced, and I know that Israel has many faults. But I am shocked at the antisemitism I am seeing in our country and around the world.
I will continue to pray for the safety of innocent civilians in this war, but I will not forget what happened to my family in the Holocaust, what happened to my friends in the Holocaust, and Hamas’ covenant to continue Adolf Hitler’s work of eliminating Jews from the planet.
Hamas is not the victim of this conflict and supporting a terrorist organization that murdered more than 1,000 Jews and created the circumstances for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians is ignorant, hateful and antisemitic.
