The Children’s Crusade Revisited

After celebrating the ancient customs of my people on Yom Kippur, I learned that a flotilla of ships, carrying international mercenaries, allegedly attempting to provide aid and comfort to our terrorist enemies, was apprehended off the coast of Israel.

That selfsame day, I learned, our terrorist enemies had carried out an attack on a shul in Manchester.

Before the holiday, I had learned of a similar plot in Germany that had been foiled by the authorities.

There too, our terrorist enemies planned to lay siege to us on the holiest day of the year.

And all of this, in the course of a 25 hour holiday.

To tell the truth, I find the disruption of our sacred holiday by our terrorist enemies and their Germanic friends quite disturbing.

The whole thing stinks of Munich and Entebbe.

But our pirate queen and her adolescent buccaneers are too green to know anything of Munich and Entebbe.

In their crew is a run-away German heiress. She runs from her family’s fortune and legacy, both of which were built on the bodies of Jews.

Somewhere in this fleet, there is likely a man who operates the radio. He is, most likely, in communication with landlubbers in Gaza, with whom they have been coordinating their mission.

These landlubbers in Gaza are assuredly members of Hamas, which makes this whole quixotic adventure all the more disconcerting.

This journey, which at one point appeared to be little more than children’s theater, has taken on an altogether sinister element. This journey is no longer just the machinations of foolish children – this journey has become a clear and unambiguous attempt to aid our enemies through material and media support.

In far too many ways, the life of Greta Thunberg has become eerily reminiscent of the Children’s crusade.

In the 13th century, European adults, who had grown tired of their constant crusading but were unwilling to relinquish the sense of self-righteousness that crusading gave them, sent their children on a crusade to the holy land.

There was one child among them, a 12-year-old French boy, who was so brave and inspired that people rallied around him.

In all, some 50,000 children marched on this crusade.

Brave, inspired, the children marched across Europe on their way to the Land of Israel, armed with nothing but their righteous dreams of holy grandeur.

What could be more beautiful than the sight of sinless children crusading towards the Holy Land?

Fifty thousand sinless children set out for the Holy Land, and fifty thousand sinless children were sold into slavery in the Arab world.

The adults, nameless to history, are, of course, to blame, because sending children on a crusade is beyond foolish.

But where are those adults now?

Where are the European adults who can see the lunacy of this endeavor and of Europe’s broader fall and put a stop to it?

As they were nameless then, they are nameless now.

There are terrorist attacks in every European country, committed by terrorist cells that operate in those countries, and yet European children have set sail for the Holy Land to aid and abet the self-same terrorists who are plotting attacks in Europe.

But the adults of Europe cheer them on and take to the streets in support.

The adults of Europe are more concerned with the optics of their children’s crusade than with the terror attacks killing their friends back home.

The cynic might say that this was always to be expected. That the great European crusade has always been against the Jews. That even in 1096, in the first year of the great European Crusade, the very first target of those brave crusaders were the Jews. The cynic might say that Europeans never abandoned their great crusade against the Jews – they only resented that Hitler had other designs as well. The cynic might say Europe only tolerated Zionism insofar as it offered an escape from their insufferable Jewish neighbors, and that the great European complaint against Zionism is not that there are so many Jews in Israel but rather that so many stayed behind.

But why be cynical?

If one were to be cynical about Europe, one might even be driven to say something outrageous, something like this:

For 75 years, Europe did not recognize Palestine as a state.

That is because Palestine in no way resembled a European state. There was simply nothing European about it.

However, when Europe witnessed the debauched inhumanity unleashed on the Jewish people on October 7th, they finally saw a kindred spirit.

For what is more European than a pogrom?

What is more emblematic of the European crusade than a burning shul?

Where would the states of Europe be without all of the property they confiscated from their Jewish neighbors?

That’s what the cynic says.

The cynic says Greta Thunberg and Europe’s obsession with Hamas is nothing more than a continuation of their ancient Jewish bloodlust. The cynic says there are probably far too many people in Europe who had a wry smile reading about the attack in Manchester.

That’s what the cynic says.

The optimist says nothing – he’s dead. He was beaten to death by the succession of years that began in 2015. His death was slow and painful.

But the realist says “nu, habibi what’s new? The Europeans hate us, and they love themselves for hating us. Call your Polish ancestors and cry about it, what are you going to do?”

And that is the great question of the new year, 5786, what are you going to do?

Because the die is cast on Europe, and the sun is setting on the U.S. There is darkness all around, and there is no point in hiding from it anymore.

We have all come out of Yom Kippur as sinless as those children they sent on crusade, but we have emerged with eyes open towards the reality around us.

In Shul, we read a piyut written by a Rabbi who was killed in the York massacre of 1190.

(Painting of burning tower in York, where over 150 Jews chose to commit suicide rather than face whatever their crusading Christian neighbors had in store)

Some things change, some things stay the same, but all you can control is yourself.

There are pirates sailing to Israel, and there are fires burning in the shuls of Europe – and you are where you are, living in this world as it is.

And so the question lingers, habibi, what are you going to do?

~

Spread Love, Spread Light,

Am Yisrael Chai