Posted on 10/23/2017 5:17:30 PM PDT by beaversmom
Filmmaker Heidi Ewing faced a storm of criticism on Sunday for asserting that Chasidic Jews were targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust partially because they “refused to blend in.”
During an interview on the “Charlie Rose” show on Thursday, Ewing talked about the Chasidim — followers of a stream of Orthodox Judaism which has its roots in 18th century Eastern Europe. At the time, she said, “the community wasn’t as cloistered and insular as it is today,” adding, “The vast majority of Chasidic Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust partly because they refused to blend in. They kept wearing the clothing. They were sort of loud and proud about their identity. And the vast majority died in the Holocaust.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper — associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center — told The Algemeiner on Sunday that Ewing’s comments left him “almost at a loss for words.” He added, “[Jews] were killed because they were Jews. The Nazi definition of a Jew – there was a church in the Warsaw ghetto! — it was a racial definition. People who were not even halachically (by Jewish law) Jewish were targeted also for suffering and ultimately extermination. So I don’t quite get it, as if … the fact that they maintained their identity was the reason for their death sentence? It’s ridiculous.”
Furthermore, Cooper said, “It’s not as if for the Jews who were dressed like Aryans everything would have be fine. I’m in Paris right now, there were many tens of thousands of French Jews who were deported from here. They didn’t look any different from the rest of the Frenchmen, and they were deported to Auschwitz.”
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Chabad Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone took to Twitter to condemn Ewing’s remarks. “This is appalling,” he said. “It’s … an insult to the many Jews across the religious spectrum that were killed in the Holocaust. Cities likes Warsaw and Vilna, strongholds of traditional Judaism also had large secular populations. Nazi bullets and gas killed them all.”
The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council also condemned Ewing’s comments, calling them “outrageous” and Chaskel Bennett, founder of the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, called on Ewing to issue a retraction. He noted, “the Nazi ‘final solution’ endeavored to exterminate ALL JEWS!”
Ewing — who wrote and co-directed the documentary film “One of Us,” which chronicles the lives of three former Chasidic Jews from Brooklyn — responded to the criticism with a statement, saying, “I am sorry if my words on Charlie Rose caused any pain and would like to clarify their meaning. The devastating losses that the Jewish community suffered at the hands of the Nazis is unspeakable. Almost half the population of world Jewry was destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators, whole communities destroyed.”
She continued: “In the midst of this sweeping genocide, Hasidic Jews suffered disproportionate losses during the Holocaust partially because they were more easily identified and therefore had more difficulty hiding. This has been documented by multiple historians. It took great courage for Hasidic Jews at that time to refuse to change their appearance to look more like the general European public. I am only filled with respect and admiration for any person who chooses to live their own truth.”
Full title:
Filmmaker Faces Harsh Criticism for Claiming Chasidic Jews Were Killed in Holocaust Because They ‘Refused to Blend In’
Silly filmmaker! Aren’t you up to date on the current SJW narrative?
The so-called “Holocaust” is just as fake as the so-called “Armenian Genocide”. Besides, there are no actual, bona-fide “Jews” in the modern world anyway! They all converted to Islam and became Palestinians. All the so-called “Jews” are AshkeNAZI Khazar impostors from Central Asia!
/sarc
Stooopid woman...she should have done her homework!
She probably has an ivy league degree.
Nazi racial ideology was built in no small part on the (bogus) work of Hans Gunther. Gunther asserted that "Arminoids" originated in the Caucasus and spread into both Eastern Europe and Mesopotamia, which would mean that European Jews and Israelites were the same people -- again, that racial requirement to being a "Bona Fide Jew". Gunther also held that Iranians were from the same pool as Jews-- ironic considering that in reality Persians are genetically much closer to "Aryan purity" than any Northern European subgroup. But hey, they have "short heads," so they must be some kind of Jews.
Rather than squabble about racial nonsense, I think it suffices to say that millions upon millions of people were murdered by the Nazis, and nearly half of those people were Jews. Whether they were Chasidic or not is kind of besides the point.
Let me guess: German film makers are as liberally ignorant as those in Hollywood.
I wonder if she banged her way to the top?
OTOH, I only have the single quote to go by....
"In the Jew I still saw only a man who was of a different religion, and therefore, on grounds of human tolerance, I was against the idea that he should be attacked because he had a different faith. And so I considered that the tone adopted by the anti-Semitic Press in Vienna was unworthy of the cultural traditions of a great people. The memory of certain events which happened in the middle ages came into my mind, and I felt that I should not like to see them repeated." ...
"Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this appearance in Linz. I watched the man stealthily and cautiously; but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a German?"
I read that too!
Wasn't it here on FR?
This is a great site for Jews in the news.
Yes, it was on FR. The brave lady managed to disarm a Nazi guard and shoot some of them.
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