I had an amazing chain of events hearing and reading
about the pogroms in Russia in the late 1890’s and early 1900. The stories were
first so far away in time and place I could not quite relate to them.
I wanted to talk to people about the pogroms, but many
did not even hear the word. I googled the word: it is a Russian word
meaning total devastation.
A few months ago, I read a book about Israel where the
writer talked about a famous poem in each period of Jewish History. In 1905 the
famous poem was: The City of Killing, by the poet H.N. Bialik.
Bialik was a young journalist at the time of the Kishinev
Pogrom. The town was attacked by hooligans who killed and raped and destroyed
everything in their path. Bialik was sent to the town to take testimonies
and report on the event. He spoke to the women who were in shock, and to the
men, some brave some cowards. In his poem he cries out about the rabbis who
made the decree that the women who were raped were not allowed to their
husbands. “What dark minded leaders are these?” Cried Bialik.
Sometime later I heard about a specific family who was
affected by the Kishinev pogrom. This was a presentation about another Israeli
poet who just passed away in his 90’s Haim Guri. His mother was always sad. The
story was that as a young girl she watched her mother being raped. After that
the mother was banned from the family. She used to come at nighttime and watch
her children sleeping. In the end she could not take it any longer, she
walked to the river and never returned. This is a real story where the rape of
one woman affects not just her but her children and grandchildren.
This past year my friend recommended the book "The
Last Girl," written by Nadia Murad. She is one of the young Yazidi women
captured by ISIS. These women became the slaves of ISIS warriors and were
gang raped daily. Nadia managed to escape, and she became a spokeswoman
for molested girls everywhere. She won the Nobel prize for peace this
year together with Dr. Mukwege. He is the gynecologist who healed the wounds
of many women raped in the war in Congo. In her book Nadia talks about
the Yazidi leaders who pondered the fate of their raped women. They were
more enlightened than previous leaders and decreed that it was not the women’s
fault, therefore these women are allowed back in society to lead a normal
healthy life.
To end this story, I want to mention the biblical story I
happened to read to my students: Joseph and his dreams. Joseph serves at
Potiphar's house the minister to Pharaoh and he does a great job. He is
very handsome, and Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him. He keeps runing away
from her, but one time she manages to get hold of his clothing and tears away a
piece. When her husband comes home, she blames Joseph for attacking her
and Joseph is sent to Jail. It did not escape my young student that this
is an early story of “he said she said.”
