Eighty years ago this week, on February 24, 1942, nineteen-year-old David Stoliar was alive, alone, floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the Black Sea, surrounded by corpses,
yelling all night into the dark so that he would not fall asleep and freeze to death.
He was in the Black Sea, surrounded by death, because he was a “surplus Jew,” as the British put it unabashedly. We’ll come back to David Stoliar.
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Last week, the Israeli government was cooperating with relief groups to prepare for
the possible evacuation to Israel of some of the 100,000 Jews in Ukraine, should the anticipated war make that necessary. Officials apparently do not expect to need a massive airlift, but they’re preparing for all eventualities, some said. Twenty-one years ago, as many of us vividly recall, Israel airlifted 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel on massive El Al jumbo jets. It was for the same reason. Ethiopian Jews, as far as Israel was concerned, were not “surplus.” Neither are the Ukrainian Jews.
And sure enough, this morning’s Israeli press announced that they had begun arriving. Dozens of
olim from Ukraine arrived in Israel on Sunday as the threat of war grew ever ominous. According to the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, 75 immigrants arrived on an initial flight and another 22 were expected the same day. Said Immigrant Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, “Our message to the Jews of Ukraine is very clear — Israel will always be their home; our gates are open to them during normal times as well as in emergencies.”
Israel’s most important function is not serving as a refuge for Jews who need it. Nine-million people do not go about their business of living here and building this country so that one day, if Jews need a place to go, we’ll be here. Still, though, refuge is part of why Israel is around; the fact that there is a Jewish state means that there are no longer “surplus Jews.”
Perhaps the most important element of the story to remember is to be found in a British governmental communication from 1941, referring to the Jews who were desperate to escape Europe and who, the British rightly understood, would try to make their way to Palestine despite British objections. “We should have some alternative scheme in hand for disposing of these surplus Jews, who having escaped from persecution in Europe, are going to be kept in detention camps in British colonies,” the communication stated matter-of-factly.
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Tragically, if Vladimir Putin wants to set that region ablaze, he can and he will. Innocent lives didn’t matter to the Soviets when they torpedoed the
Struma, any more than innocent lives matter to the Russians today. The only difference is that this time, there’s a Jewish state. This time, there are no “surplus Jews.” This time, no one will be left in the freezing water, yelling into the dark of night, wondering why no one cares.
(full article online)
Eighty years ago this week, 700 Jews drowned because no one in the world would take them in
danielgordis.substack.com
