Last year, my family and I decided to create an endowment at the University of Wisconsin with the following mission in mind:
Holocaust remembrance and education are important topics for Jewish and non-Jewish college students. Learning about the dangers of hatred and discrimination through Holocaust education is important to fighting intolerance and prejudice in today’s world. Studying the Holocaust provides opportunities to explore and inspire with stories of courage, adversity, and resilience.
Today, one out of every five kids think the Holocaust was a myth. These are the same kids tearing down American flags, tearing down posters of kidnapped children, assaulting police officers, and screaming “intifada” on the streets and in the halls of our cities and universities.
Some of these kids also believe the atrocities of 10/7 were justified or never happened.
I recently listened to Lex Friedman’s interview with Jeff Bezos. If you want to hear someone speak with incredible clarity and wisdom, listen to Jeff. There’s a reason he is the second richest person in the world.
But there was one topic that resonated with me more than anything.
Truth.
It seems like the world doesn’t care much about it these days. Just skim through social media and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
However, Jeff reminds us that “truth” is arguably the single most important factor that leads to success and prosperity.
“Yes, challenging. They [truths] can make people defensive even if that’s not the intent. But any high performing organization, whether it’s a sports team, a business, a political organization, an activist group, I don’t care what it is, any high performing organization has to have mechanisms and a culture that supports truth-telling.” – 1:29:14
The evidence is irrefutable. As of this writing, Amazon has about a 1.6 trillion dollar market cap making it the fifth richest company in the world.
If you look at the world’s most successful companies, they all have this trait.
They consistently engage in the pursuit of truth, employing critical thinking, problem-solving, and scientific methodologies in their approach.
“And so science is all about truth-telling. It’s actually a very formal mechanism for trying to tell the truth. And even in science, you find that it’s hard to tell the truth. Even you’re supposed to have a hypothesis and test it and find data and reject the hypothesis and so on, it’s not easy.” – Jeff Bezos, 1:30:10
Elon Musk also famously refers to “truths” and first principles:
As of this writing, Elon Musk is the number one richest person in the world, with companies that launch rockets into space (SpaceX), produce self-driving cars (Tesla), and let humans transmit information electronically with just their brains (Neuralink). You only do that with capable leadership and truth-seeking.
There is another place where this truth-seeking discipline has taken shape over the past few decades leading to some incredible human achievements and prosperity, including, but not limited to the development of things like:
While we're at it, here are other things they should add to the Jewish boycott list:
– Salvarsan, siphillis drug – Digitalis, heart disease drug – Novocaine, toothache drug – Insulin, blood sugar drug – Pyramidon, headache drug – Antypyrin, headache drug – Spiro, high blood… https://t.co/drxpZz9UQc
This country also ranks #7 in the world for creating the most unicorns, has more than 100 companies listed on US exchanges, with a combined market cap of more than $150 billion, and has the fourth most companies listed on the Nasdaq after the United States, Canada, and China.
And if that wasn’t enough, Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lower rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse. It’s also one of the few populations that are young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking. According to a recent UN report, it is also the fourth happiest nation in the world behind Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.
These achievements would not have been possible without dedicated hard work and a relentless quest for truth.
But, truth is hard.
“You have just asked a million-dollar question. So if I generalize what you’re asking, you are talking in general about truth-telling and we humans are not really truth-seeking animals. We are social animals.” – Jeff Bezos, 01:28:21
This brings us to today.
War.
There is a hot war in the Middle East and an information war online.
Both sides understand the importance of truth or lack thereof.
Iran and their proxies, like Hamas, understand that “we are social animals” and so the more death, destruction, and oppression they can inflict on their people (look what Israel did to us!), the more sympathy they can create for their cause.
In short, they can prevent “truth-seeking animals” by pulling on the strings of our most animalistic tendencies and emotions, using social media megaphones we all have in our pockets. Who wouldn’t get upset when they see the photos coming out of Gaza? I know I do. It’s horrible and tragic. But that’s the point. They recognize that “truth-telling” for most people is hard, and so they prey on the ignorance and lazy thinking that many people have.
But ultimately, truth will prevail.
And the truth is this:
One side wants dead Jews.
The other side does not want to die.
And if you don’t believe this, then just look at the track records of truth.
I’m rounded up with 12 others and we’re being escorted to a church. The others are quite. They don’t know why they were just abducted from their daily routine and I don’t know either. It looked like some were only on their way to the market and some were on their way to school, like me. I’m only 15. What could they possible want from me? The soldiers are bringing us to a church on the other side of town, but what for? It wasn’t too long ago that they occupied our town and disrupted our lives. I don’t understand. Why are we going to a church? Something is off. This doesn’t seem right. I need to get out of here. I need to run. I must run. I have to run NOW.
I take off in a sprint and I know the soldiers are running after me. Chasing me. Hoping they can round me up and bring me back with the others. I don’t look back though because I’m afraid it will slow me down. I keep running. I make my way back to the center of town and look for a place to hide but I’m not really sure where to go. I need to get off of the streets. I need to be inside. Houses!
I start knocking on the doors of the locals. The first house is white with a red door. I hear people inside but they won’t let me in. I move on to the next house. They open the door at least but also won’t let me in. House after house I’m rejected. Is it because of my age? My clothes? There is still nowhere to hide until finally someone welcomes me into their home. I can see the fear on their face though. Their mild reluctance to let me in. Their hesitation. How could they not be afraid? I’m out of breath and desperate for a place to hide. I would fight them right now if they won’t let me in, but they do. They finally let me in and I sit on the floor to catch my breath.
Hours go by. I haven’t returned home from school and my family must be worried. They don’t know where I am but I can’t go home. I can’t leave yet because it’s too dangerous. I must stay here for the night at least until the soldiers have given up on my search. If they are even searching for me at all. Yes, I need to stay here and I’ll go home in the morning.
When the sun rises I know its safe to make my way back home but I’m compelled to go back to the church first. I need to see what they wanted from us and what awaited for us at the church.
Blood…
The earth is bright red and there is a giant, fresh mound of dirt. I have never seen anything like this before. A mass grave. I was just with these people. I was one of these people.
I feel sick. Confused. Lucky.
I run again, but this time I run home and when I get there I know my life will never be the same.
It’s 1940. Germany has invaded our small town in Poland I’m terrified of what will be next….
Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance day and this story is one of many my grandfather has from the Holocaust. There is one saying that all holocaust survivors and family members have engrained in their DNA and that saying is “never forget.” I know I will never, ever forget.
The Last Jew of Vinnytsia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
