Liquidation, Dislocation, Innovation and Self-Preservation: A Jewish Story
Liquidation, Dislocation, Innovation and Self-Preservation: A Jewish Story
“'Magic Carpet' was just one of the many epic efforts to rebuild modern Jewry over the next several decades — including turning an arid desert into an agricultural wonder and 'Start-up Nation.'”
By Michael Golden
Today’s date, September 24, will forever be meaningful in Jewish history. Not because of the real-time events that are unfolding in the State of Israel at this very moment — but because of two past dates that tell a story about how the Jewish people arrived at this point.
Eighty-one years ago today, in Nazi-occupied Lithuania, Hitler "liquidated" the Vilna Ghetto. SS henchmen deported 4,000 women, children and elderly people to death camps in Poland, where they were eventually murdered. An additional 3,700 men and women were sent to labor camps in Estonia and Latvia.
Before the Holocaust, Vilna was a thriving Jewish community. Jewish roots in Lithuania stretched back to the 14th century. Five centuries later, more than 100,000 Jews lived in the country and attended 105 synagogues. Vilna (now Vilnius) was known as “the Jerusalem of Lithuania.”
The liquidation had been ordered months earlier by Heinrich Himmler, and it all came to an end on Sept. 24. By that time, there were about 100 members left of the Jewish armed resistance, the FPO, in the ghetto. They had planned an uprising prior to liquidation, but ultimately chose to send members to the nearby forests in Rudniki and Narcocz. There, they would try to survive and join “partisan fighting units.” Several were caught and hanged by the Germans. But others made it and were actually fighting with the Red Army to liberate Vilna the following year.
What happened on Sept. 24, 1943, was just one among many liquidations executed by the murderous Third Reich. When liberation finally did come at the end of the war, Jews then faced dislocation. Survivors who had been deported from camp to camp, many of whose entire families had been killed, were lost in no-man’s-land. No matter where they were, they were not home.
But Jews are no strangers to feeling like strangers. Well-practiced from centuries of persecution and dislocation, they did what they had always done: survived. In increasing numbers, Jews migrated to join the Yishuv that had been growing for years in what would soon become the State of Israel. Which brings us to our second date…
On Sept. 24, 1950, the last of 380 flights in Operation Magic Carpet flew the last 177 Yemeni Jews to Israel’s Lod airport. The mission had launched 15 months earlier and was intended to bring 20,000 Jews, but the final number was closer to 50,000.
Also known as Operation Kanfei Nesharim, it was named after a passage from Exodus: “...and I will transport you on eagles’ wings and bring you to me…” Pogroms in Yemen’s then-capital city of Aden had ended up killing 83 Jews and displacing many families. The attacks were what led to the operation, which was carried out by the Israeli government, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Magic Carpet was just one of the many innovative efforts to rebuild modern Jewry over the next several decades — including turning an arid desert into an agricultural wonder and “Start-up Nation.”
The Jewish people will not be “liquidated” again.
Last night, I hosted a Zoom visit for some of my beloved JEWDICIOUS writers, whom I affectionately refer to as “The Scribe Tribe.” Members of our team hail from cities spanning Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Toronto, New York, Newark, Chicago, Phoenix, Las Cruces, Santa Barbara, Hollywood…
As many of us have written in this space since October 7, it is a strange thing to try to have a “happy hour” or other forms of celebration when our brethren in Israel are still being held hostage and a war is raging. We all do our best, keeping in mind our Jewish tradition of living life to the fullest — even when it seems completely counterintuitive.
I posted our first official JEWDICIOUS column on Aug. 27, 2023, six weeks before Hamas invaded Israel — murdering, raping and kidnapping more than 1,200 Jews. After the attack, Hamas vowed to continue executing such attacks. Similar to the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” Hamas has declared its desire to rid the world of Jews. No compromise. No negotiation. Just jihad until we’re all gone.
When it comes to the specifics of Israeli politics and the war against Hamas and Hezbollah, of course I don’t speak for all of our writers. But it’s not a stretch for me to express that the irony of the timing of our launch was not lost on any of us. And as the editor of JEWDICIOUS, working with 18 writers who are also my friends, I can safely say that there has been an additional sense of purpose in this mission due to the tragedy and aftermath of October 7.
This isn’t the kind of “first anniversary” article I could have ever imagined writing. But it is the truth. The history of the Jewish people is the truth. What Jews have endured, survived, innovated and constantly had to fight for to preserve is the truth. It is a big part of why I write, and why I am so proud and humbled to continue into Year 2 with this dedicated team of talented pens.
I am so grateful to each and every one of them. And we are all so grateful to each and every one of you.
Am Yisrael Chai.
**The Scribe Tribe sends special thanks to our friend Steven Drucker, founder of DUST AND STARS on Substack. Check out D&S if you’re curious to learn more about consequential dates in Jewish history!
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