Thursday, October 10, 2024

The United Nations

 

When I was almost nine years old, my parents and I took a vacation to the east coast. While there we visited the United Nations and I was totally enchanted. How wonderful for all the nations of the world to get along. That enchantment motivated me a few years later when my cousin and I decided to go treat-or-treating on Halloween, not for candy, but for UNICEF. One of the first houses we approached had a huge flagpole in the middle of the front yard and an American flag hung from it daily. We were expecting a nice donation from the owner and were totally blindsided when he gruffly refused to give us anything. To the children behind us he became more affable. “I give the American way,” he announced as he handed them treats.

That was close to sixty years ago and through the years as the UN passed numerous anti-Israel resolutions, I came to understand that gruff neighbor more and more. An organization that enchanted a young child has become a bastion of antisemitism. The crowning insult was when their employees participated in the October 7th massacre.

Now that UNRWA and other UN organizations are nominated for the Noble Peace Prize I imagine my gruff neighbor is turning over in his grave. As for me, well, I’m horrified, but then the world seems to have lost its moral compass.

As I write this, we’re less than thirty-six hours until the beginning of Yom Kippur, our day of atonement. Let’s do good deeds, give generous donations, repent, and pray with all our heart for the Almighty to nullify His harsh decrees and bring the world back to sanity.  

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