{"id":7904,"date":"2013-06-28T19:30:31","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T01:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=7904"},"modified":"2013-06-28T19:30:31","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T01:30:31","slug":"4th-of-july-our-holiday-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/4th-of-july-our-holiday-too\/","title":{"rendered":"4th of July: Our holiday too"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF<\/em><\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve been around, to say the least. But nowhere have we been treated as kindly as in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. \u201cCome in, have a cup of tea, write us a song, start up a business and employ some fellow Americans, cure a disease.\u201d And so we have. The here now, pay later philosophy of the Jewish philosophy \u2013 the accent on \u201cthis worldliness\u201d has paid immense dividends to our adoptive homeland and her Jewish guests. July 4th should be our most joyous holiday after Shavuos. Shavuos has to take precedence; without it we wouldn\u2019t be Jews.<\/p>\n

But the gift of America \u2013 the foggy thing called freedom \u2013 has never been equaled from Ur, Abraham\u2019s hometown to the empire of Solomon. Manhattan beats them all.<\/p>\n

We have rooted here in the 50 states surrounding Time Square. Assimilation was not a problem in a nation with open social borders that judged a person by their contribution, not their racial origin. No bully with whip and bullhorn has shouted, \u201cMOVE JEW, MOVE\u201d!!<\/p>\n

And if I wanted to be irreverent, I\u2019d swear it was the land that God had in mind when we covenanted with him. Didn\u2019t He promise us a land of milk and honey? It wasn\u2019t a desert we had to eventually traverse, but first the Mediterranean (no, Suez Canal in those days) then the Atlantic Ocean. And it didn\u2019t take forty years, but roughly 3,300 years to get here. Actually, yes we got that Middle Eastern Land of Milk and Honey, our ancestral home, plus this land of prosperity and freedom. And let it be noted that historically America, Queen of democracies, is the only major nation that at one time or another never kicked us out. The Russian Tzarist solution was \u201cconvert one third, export a third, and starve the last third to death\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wait a minute. An anomaly: I know not of one Jewish signer of the Declaration of Independence. Shocking. It\u2019s a rare turn in history that doesn\u2019t involve our kinfolk either behind the scenes or standing at the footlights. Maybe they were called by nature out of the room at the crucial moment. Maybe they were touring Boston for a Kosher hot dog. Or maybe it was Shabbos and they didn\u2019t want to curse the life of the New Zion with a sin. More research is needed.<\/p>\n

Whatever our role, you can bet we\u2019ll be among the celebrants having hot dogs with pickle and onion \u2013 pickles are Jewish. Firecrackers are not.<\/p>\n

As we look around the globe, no country has hosted us with the generosity of the United States of America. Mild anti-Semitism was the worst they could throw at us. \u201cYou can\u2019t join our country club,\u201d which is small potatoes compared with pogroms, Cossacks, and storm troopers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFine, we\u2019ll build our own. And you can bet the food will be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t one Jew-hating Cossack between New York and California. And if there had been, the cops would have picked him up for speeding or reckless driving of his four-footed vehicle.<\/p>\n

I wholeheartedly believe that we have repaid the debt in every form of human endeavor; art, music, literature, and science and thereby returned the favors that freedom brings. (Did you know that Irving Berlin donated all the royalties from \u201cGod Bless America\u201d to the Boy and Girl Scouts of America?)<\/p>\n

July the 4th is the link in the chain that connects the Freedom Headquarters of the Western world with the only democracy in the Middle East. Two sister nations, both conceived in a fiery birth. Both based in a faithless world on a statement of faith: \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d.<\/p>\n

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