The true power of one

Editorial

During a lecture at Temple Sholom recently, the historian Paul Liptz pointed out that Israel's best friends in Europe today are Germany and Poland. It is hard to fathom the changes that have taken place in world history over the past half-century that would lead to this astonishing reality. Germany, the place from which the idea to eliminate the Jewish people from humankind nearly reached its fulfilment, and Poland, where those terrible ideas were most effectively implemented, are now the greatest supporters in Europe of Jewish self-determination.

While there might be a flip side to this positive equation – where are Israel's traditional allies in Europe and elsewhere? – we should not just dwell in the sadness of contemporary events but see the changing roles in the world, in places like Germany, as a sign that even the most terrible epochs will pass and freedom and humanitarianism can triumph where totalitarianism and inhumanity once ruled.

All of this is a somewhat global way of seguing into two relatively small, seemingly unrelated stories that captured our attention this week.

As you can read in this issue of the Independent, there was recently a disturbing incident of anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic graffiti in Richmond. This is not as uncommon an event as we would like, but it is probably the act of one individual or a small group of people, possibly ignorant of the power of their message.

Elsewhere, we report on a young German woman whose persistence in pursuing a volunteer position in Vancouver's Jewish community provided a learning opportunity for her and for members of our community as well.

On the face of it, these two events seem mismatched. There are people who still go around painting swastikas on public spaces. Then there is an unrelated story of a young German seeking some sort of connection with the people her nation's totalitarian regime once attempted to eliminate, failing just barely, but succeeding beyond the human imagination at instilling suffering and death nonetheless.

The small act of a single individual shelving books in a Jewish library cannot atone for the acts of a nation turned genocidal. But neither is it supposed to. This young woman took it upon herself to engage with our community for reasons of her own, for the mutual benefit of herself and our library. She did not do so to alleviate the burden of her nation's history from her shoulders, nor should such a Herculean responsibility have been expected. But just as much as the hateful propaganda sprayed on a wall in Richmond was probably the act of a single individual, so was the small effort at reconciliation exemplified by our German volunteer.

If we are to feel threatened, hurt and disheartened by the act of one individual in Richmond, we must then feel commensurate strength, joy and hopefulness by the act of a single individual making a positive impact. One person has the power to hurt. A single person also has the power to heal.

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