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And finally, an article about the affects of the current round of violence on Jewish
communities in the Diaspora.

Imagining the flames

By Anders Carlberg, Haaretz, 16/01/2009

The typical small Jewish communities of northern Europe find themselves in a dilemma. Despite
their identification with Israel, and their belief that it has a right to protect its citizens from
life-endangering bombardment, many European Jews feel unable to justify the bombing of
Gazan schools and densely populated urban areas on the basis of self-defense. The innocence of
children is universal, and we share responsibility for the children of the world with all the rest
of humanity.

The solidarity marches with Israel that we are witnessing around Europe and North America
are understandable, as Israel again finds itself isolated and misrepresented, even despised. But
some of the arguments being made in the face of the bloodshed and carnage are often weak.

At the same time, the Jewish communities in my town and elsewhere in the European Diaspora
have become vulnerable targets of anti-Israel demonstrations, which are becoming increasingly
violent and aggressive. The intensity of the hatred of Israel - and of the very presence of a
Jewish state in the Middle East - will continue to affect the Jewish communities of Europe long
after Israel has again withdrawn its troops from Gaza.

Local chapters of Hamas sympathizers are gaining supporters in Scandinavia every day. Well-

known liberal and modernist Muslims are suddenly identifying themselves as radicals. Mohamed
Omar, a poet and intellectual who had previously spoken out against fundamentalist cells in
Sweden, recently proclaimed that he now backs Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran - precisely the
fundamentalist movements he once distanced himself from, calling them the enemies of
modernism.

As the demonstrators who convene close to our local synagogue each Saturday afternoon
prepare to begin their march through the city center, we warn our members and visitors to stay

away from the route they will take. We say this to people who came to Sweden as Holocaust
survivors, or as refugees from Hungary in 1956 and Poland in 1968 and from the Soviet Union in
the 1980s. For them, the hostility and worse is a repetition of what they experienced earlier in
life - isolation and dehumanization of them as Jews, the branding of Jews as bad people,
undeserving of human sympathy.

Then there is the group that thinks Sweden is the wrong place for a Jew to be, especially at a
time like this. They feel their place is in Israel, volunteering with Magen David Adom in Sderot

or simply being at the side of family members there, whom they may feel they have to some
extent abandoned. They are pushing for the Jewish community to take a clearer stand in
support of Israel, seemingly insensitive to the dilemma between loyalty to Israel and the moral
instinct that is awakened in anyone as they see images of dying children being rushed to a
hospital.

And then there is a third group that joins us in that same community room as we gather