Q:
You’ve spoken quite harshly about the liberals, saying that they’re a danger to America. Which is worse, the old-fashioned Christians who killed millions, or the modern day liberals who stress civil rights?
A:
This is a queer question. First of all, old-fashioned Christians didn’t kill millions. Millions were only killed by modern Christians, the ones who are not really Christians anyhow. The old-fashioned Christians only killed thousands. I say that because the din is that you have to give credit where credit is due. It says, אל תהיו כסוס כפרד אין הבין – Don’t be like a horse or mule who doesn’t understand, and Chazal say that if you don’t know the difference between a Mitzri and an Amaleiki, then you’re like a horse. You can’t call all goyim by the same bad names. There’s a big difference.
It’s like that reform rabbi, Maurice Eisendrath, alav ha’shnubbel; before he departed for warmer climates, so his last words were a great blast against President Nixon. He said, “President Nixon makes me think of the Nazis. It’s an echo of the Nazis.” Well, that’s as silly as can be! First of all, President Nixon is very far from being a Nazi. If President Nixon is a little bit incensed at the “Jew boys” who make so much trouble for him, I don’t blame him at all. (In 1974 articles in the American press claimed that President Nixon had used the epithet “Jew boys” when referring to some of his political enemies.) If I were in his shoes I wouldn’t be satisfied with saying such a mild expression. I’d call them something else; these Jew boys with a blank after it. After all, it was the Jew boys who were making all the trouble.
So where does Eisendrath come chas v’shalom to call him a Nazi?! What do we Jews suffer from Nixon? And even the Russians; we can’t call the Russians “Nazis.” We have to be careful in our choice of words. Although the Russians did kill millions, and they killed many Jews too, but they are very far from earning the name of Nazis. People bandy about the word Nazi; if the gabbai in shul didn’t give you the aliyah you wanted, so “He’s a Nazi!” It’s foolish talk.
And so let’s speak up for the old fashioned Christians who did not kill millions. And as far as the new liberal who stresses civil rights, well, I have a lot to say on that subject but we’ll skip it for today, because I think I’ve spoken about that plenty.
TAPE # 61 (May 1974)
