Special needs adoption from a Jewish perspective.

Special needs adoption from a Jewish perspective.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

"Not our kids"

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Jews (as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists and people with disabilities) were slaughtered wholesale while around the world people watched, either not believing or not caring.

Boatloads of refugees were turned away from England and the United States.  "These people are not our problem!"

Martin Niemoller has been often quoted (and misquoted):

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Disavowing responsibility for the perceived "Other", whether fellow countrymen "You are a Jew, so you are no longer a real German!" or just fellow human beings "Your country is messed up, that's your problem, not mine!" was a major factor that allowed this atrocity to be perpetrated.

Are we not responsible for acting on behalf of children just because they are not "ours"?

If "our child" was trapped in an institution where he was confined to a crib until he forgot how to walk or talk, and began banging his head and chewing his hands out of boredom, we would not consider it "too difficult" to do whatever it takes to help him heal.  Why then is it "too much work" to take on to rescue a child to whom we are not genetically related?

Not our problem?  If not us, then who? And if not now, when?



No comments:

Post a Comment

Jewish Bloggers
Powered By Ringsurf