Q&A: Professor Kopstein on Neighborliness and Pogroms
Professor Kopstein on Neighborliness and Pogroms
Question
Hi Michi,
An hour ago I sent Jeff—Professor Kopstein—an email with my objections to his thesis, and I referred to the Hebron massacre.
The guy immediately sat down to respond to what I wrote [in the meantime he has returned to California], and in his reply he clarified that he researched more than 2,000 communities in Poland and Ukraine, and found characteristics distinguishing events of pogroms from cases of solidarity.
Since he has family in Israel, he comes here from time to time, so I invited him to Nir David.
Tomorrow I intend to travel to the Technion, and I want to present there a logically illustrated explanation of a controversial issue in aviation. I also plan to present it to you, even though you deal not with aerodynamics but “only” with other areas of physics, as well as logic and philosophy, but I’ll do that on another day, God willing. Today I no longer have the energy for precise wording.
All the best and good night—if you read this tonight.
Answer
The claim that he studied many events does not necessarily say anything for our purposes. The question is whether this is a universal phenomenon, or whether one can say that in certain cultures it does not exist, or exists less. You could study hundreds of countries around the world and reach the conclusion that there are no dictatorships, no civil wars, and no terrorism. And yet if you look at the Arab world, you would reach different conclusions.
Discussion on Answer
Hi Michi,
Here, briefly, is the gist of Jeff Kopstein’s argument:
He studied 2,000 communities. According to him, in communities where the Jews were partners with the local non-Jews in political activity—voted for the same parties as the non-Jews and shared in the vision of building a new Poland or Ukraine—there were far fewer pogroms than in communities where Zionism was dominant. He did not address communities in which the Jews had no connection either to Polish nationalism or to Zionism, but were religious and tried to emigrate to America.
Have a pleasant day and all the best.
What does that prove? That if we give up our identity there will be less hatred? That if we give up our national identity and keep only a religious one there will be less hatred? And therefore? What does all this have to do with what is happening here now? That here too we should give up our identity and then the problems will be solved? Even if we weren’t here, they would be solved. And all this assumes that one can learn from the Ukrainians to the Arabs.
I just now remembered my remarks about the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa and the attempt to import that idea to our region. See what I wrote about it in Column 54 on my site.