No sense of history? Or just no sense?

It’s funny. If he lived in the U.S., Rabbi Menachem Margolin would be considered more or less a wimp on gun rights. In Europe, he’s a most radical voice.

Since the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher massacres at least, he’s been calling for Jews to take up arms. That is, to be “allowed” to take up arms. And only “selected” Jews. Jews chosen, trained, and constantly overseen by the state (the very state that’s content to leave the Jews and everyone else disarmed in the face of both terrorism an regular, independent crime).

You see what I mean about wimpy. Still, in disarmed Europe, he’s the loudest voice calling for Jewish self defense.

Margolin is based in Belgium. So naturally, the country’s chief rabbi Abraham Guigui (I didn’t know countries had chief rabbis, but so this article says) and other prominent Jewish leaders simply must denounce him and his mad, wild, crazy, wild-west plan. According to the Jerusalem Post:

Over the weekend, Guigui issued a statement blasting what he called marginal elements and stating that calls for the arming of Jews were “a real danger and unacceptable.”

Calling for Jewish gun ownership would be tantamount to an admission that the Jews are outside of mainstream European society and that their governments are unable to provide for their security, he explained. [Pardon me for interrupting the article, but no sh*t Sherlock, it’s time to admit that “governments are unable to provide for their security.”]

Such a view is considered unacceptable to the vast majority of Belgian Jews, he said, calling on the government to defend every Belgian no matter his religious creed.

“If every one who is in danger requests a gun, today that’s the Jews, tomorrow it’s the imams… it will be a land of anarchy.”

The Coordination Committee of Belgian Jewish Organizations also decried Margolin’s call to arms, issuing a statement calling it ridiculous and asserting that the EJA was “in no way representative of the Belgian Jewish Community.”

“He [Margolin] is not connected at all with the Belgian- Jewish [umbrella] organizations,” said Baron Julien Klener, the president of the Jewish Central Consistory of Belgium, joining his voice to other organizations alarmed at the idea of arming Jews.

Margolin, of course, being a true European, rushed to have an underling explain that he really, really, really didn’t mean what those other guys thought he meant.

All I can say, guys, is it’s your funeral. I hope not literally.

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6 thoughts on “No sense of history? Or just no sense?”

  1. Better rabbinic reply:
    “It’s too late to get permission to buy guns. This time there is no Queen Esther. Unlike the King of Persia, these European governments aren’t going to let Jews protect themselves against the descendants of Haman. In fact, they will continue to keep their own citizens, but not the descendants of Haman, helpless. Pretty soon the police Jews are depending on won’t even be able to protect the governments. It’s time to get the flock out of Europe.”

  2. “Calling for Jewish gun ownership would be tantamount to an admission that the Jews are outside of mainstream European society and that their governments are unable to provide for their security, he explained.”

    Seriously? This is a *European* Jew making this statement? Could anybody be more tone-deaf?

    Maybe Jews would be better off taking their own counsel on issues of security, rather than getting it from bootlicking rabbis.

  3. The position of “Chief Rabbi” is nothing like a Jewish equivalent of (l’havdil) a bishop or a cardinal.
    It was created in certain countries under the auspices of the secular authorities, who wanted the Jewish community to have one ‘authorized’ religious leader that they could interact with, rather than with a plethora of local community rabbis.
    The situation in Israel is a holdover, first from the Ottoman Empire, then from the British Mandate.

  4. “Selected Jews” has a nice Hitlerian ring.

    Sometimes you wonder how Jews have made it down through history being this dumb. Maybe the smart Jews are in Israel, Darwin strikes again.

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