Like I told the social networks this morning:
Any Jew who can't understand why no one stopped Hitler back in 1935 needs to ask himself what he is doing today to help Russian gays.
Predictably, some took offense at this comparison, and delivered responses endeavoring to make it abundantly clear that Germans murdered Jews, while the Russians are merely talking smack. True. But as I said in my follow-up:
I said 1935. In 1935 no one anticipated genocide. In 1935 the issue was persecution and outrageous public statements and pre-Olympic posturing. Sound familiar? Moreover, just two years earlier, in 1933 German Orthodox Rabbis (including the Sridei Aish) wrote to Hitler pledging loyalty and expressing the belief that his antisemitism was mere political posturing that could be dropped now that he was securely in power.
That letter the rabbis sent to Hitler, by the way, ranks as one of the top unintentionally embarrassing things our leaders have ever done. You can be sure the German Rabbis meant well, and consulted Daas Torah and everything. They probably believed that Hitler was a rational actor who could be trusted to behave sensibly. History proved them wrong, of course, but its hard to blame them for not knowing in 1935 what we know in 2013.
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