Israel Matzav: The galus mentality

The galus mentality

Two leaders of Sweden's Jewish community - Lena Posner of Stockholm and Anders Carlberg of Gothenburg - have taken the Israeli government to task for blowing the Aftonbladet blood libel out of proportion.

According to Lena Posner, head of the Jewish community in Stockholm and president of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, "Israel caused all this mess."

Posner told Ynet, "The article was published here on Monday, but no one paid any attention to it. It wasn't a news report and was buried in the back pages of a tabloid. The writer is known to many of us as anti-Israel, and so it the entire paper. This is why no one took it seriously – until Israel got involved."

This is what I refer to as the galus (exile) mentality. The galus mentality believes that if we ignore the vile hatred around us, maybe it will go away. Many Israelis are incapable of ignoring the hatred around them - perhaps because they have too much pride because they do not (and in many cases have not) lived in the galus. Who is right? I believe it's up to the victim of an attack to decide how to respond.

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Israel Matzav: The galus mentality