Pain, Anger and Action
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

December 26, 2016, Israel

We feel anger, we feel pain. The question is what do we do with it?

We want to right the wrongs of the past, we want truth, we want justice. but Justice is not to be found.

"Awful screams, burning flesh"

We feel anger, we feel pain.

We hear the stories, people rounded up, burnt alive in a barn, or in their own synagogue. Others loot their homes, take over their houses. And then all is forgotten, a history erased, a people obliterated from memory.

We feel pain, we feel anger, what do we do with it?

An old man goes back to the town of his birth. He wants to see his old home, show it to his children but the current inhabitant, a thief, will not allow even a peek. Perhaps the former owner wants to make a claim and take back his house. The door is shut, the gate is locked. Truth is locked out.

I feel anger, I feel pain. What do I do with it?

History is falsified, recreated to suit the times and erase painful truths. But truth is absolute and cannot be changed, no matter how much we would like to.

The mayor of the town, a good man, wants to erect a small monument to the Jews who lived there, but the townspeople object, witnesses are afraid to speak up, they are told, "No good will come of it".

The mayor says, "These people lived as neighbors for 300 years, all they want is an acknowledgment that they lived here, that they were a part of the history of this town, is that two much to ask?"

But people prefer to bury the unpleasant past, but the victims cry out for justice just as those being taking away cried out to God for help. But helplessly they were pushed into a barn and set on fire and the screams cried out to heaven.

I feel anger, I feel pain, what can I do with it?

The truth has a price. "The truth has its own price" (former mayor of Jedwabne)

Jan Karski said, "As long as I shall live I shall speak about it".

As long as we live we must pursue the truth. And yes, there is a price.

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Cover by Arie Katz, ancient warrior walking through Judea.

Arie is a graduate of the Bezalel academy of Art, Jerusalem.

Footsteps from Judea, Volume One