Antisemitism
"It isn't fair, it isn't right!" screams Tessie, a girl unjustly sentenced to death in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. These words may also have been uttered by Aryeh Lev, the protagonists father in My Name is Asher Lev by Chiam Potok. Aryeh, a pious Jew, was born into an unjust anti-Semitic world that oppresses his people, places the weight of his people upon his shoulders and blights him with an obstinate son. Aryeh Lev has lived in an anti-Semitic world all his life. Aryeh's father "was killed by a drunken axe wielding peasant." (pg 5) It is unjust beyond a doubt for Aryeh to be born into a world "that hates Jews." (pg 358) Aryeh was not only born into an Anti-Semitic world but into a country with a history of anti-Semitic policy which began under the Czarist regime in which the grandfather of the Rebbe of th
e landover hasid movement "spent ten years in prison under. It is fair for no mortal to have to bear the burden of Atlas upon his shoulders. Aryeh works for the Rebbe to save and protect his people, in the religious tracts of the Sanhedrin or Jewish Supreme Court it says, "Any man who has caused a Jewish soul to perish, it as if he has destroyed the entire world; and any man who has saved a jewish soul it is as if he has saved an entire world. Disrespect for the Jewish faith was not only manifested outside Aryeh's home in the form of Anti-Semitism but, in his own home in the form of his son, Asher. Though Aryeh lives up to what is demanded of him it is utterly unfair for him to be laden with so heavy a burden. This communist government caught Jews, "and sent them to Siberia where they perished. " Aryeh seems to carry upon his shoulder 12 million worlds try to safegaurd them from what happened to 6 million other worlds in the holocaust, one specific example of a soul Aryeh has saved is Reb Yudel Krinsky who was whisked away from the gulags of Siberia. " (pg 80) "But the Rebbe's father was also imprisoned under the Bolsheviks. Making something from nothing Aryeh travels the world saving Jews and building Yeshivas, to keep Talmud and Hasidism alive. Asher not only uses his "gift" to "make the Rebbe look like a being from the other-side," he, "defiled a Chumash," (pg 123) a sacred book of Talmudic learning.
Common topics in this essay:
Aryeh Lev,
Asher Asher,
Supreme Court,
Potok Aryeh,
Russia USSR,
Disrespect Jewish,
Talmud Hasidism,
,
Aryeh Rebbe,
Achra Asher,
aryeh lev,
anti-semitic world,
aryeh born,
obstinate son aryeh,
born world,
son aryeh,
pg 80,
jewish soul,
asher asher,
obstinate son,
unjust aryeh,
aryeh born world,
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Acceptance Essays
