Sample from A VISION OF LOVE FOR CHRISTIANS AND JEWS (From Chapter 2: The Challenges.)

A VISION OF LOVE FOR CHRISTIANS AND JEWS (From Chapter 2: The Challenges.)

When people try to actualize love, anger and fear often get in the way. 

I know this first-hand.  The fear I experienced from Nazi persecution and the anger it engendered still shadow me today.  Ironically, my pain about Germany and the Germans is worsened by my realization that, but for Hitler, I would have grown up in Germany myself.  The imprint of Germany, stamped indelibly on the consciousness of my forefathers, was passed on to me in utero. 

I keep encountering it and feeling trapped by it.  For example, my ears instinctively perked up one day when, while I was eating lunch in a park near my workplace in Washington, DC, I heard tourists from Munich talking to each other.  They were golden agers who looked the same age as my mother, and their German sounded just like the way she talked.

My first impulse was to go over and say, “Imagine! You must be from Munich.  Great! Munich is my mother’s hometown.  I am glad to see you.  Enjoy your visit to beautiful Washington.”

Before I could make a move or utter a sound, my feelings flopped.  Now I wanted to go over and say, “Remember!  Your hometown gave Hitler his start. Your German grates on my ears.  Go to hell!”

My logical mind overrode both urges.  It reminded me that Hitler is long gone, and I should leave these present-day Germans alone. The truth is, I can decide to ignore present-day Germans, but I can’t leave the past alone.  It haunts me from the graves of my Jewish ancestors who lived in Germany for centuries.