March 2005 Iran: Then And Now By Rabbi Alvin Kass As we think about the holiday of Purim this year, it's difficult to forget that it recalls events which took place in the ancient country of Persia, which is today Iran. President Bush has denominated Iran as part of the "axis of evil" which endangers the safety and security of our contemporary world. Indeed, many leading statesmen, both at home and abroad, regard Iran as the most dangerous spot on the planet. It is the foremost backer of state-supported terrorism; and its aggressive development of nuclear weapons in violation of international law ought to be a cause of grave foreboding. Furthermore, despite the thousands of years that separate the government of Ahasuerus from the mullahs of 2005, one very obvious characteristic they share in common is hostility toward the Jew. In the fifth century B.C.E. the evil villain who devised a master plan to destroy the Jewish nation was Haman. As we begin the 21st century C.E. the battling factions in Iran can agree on virtually nothing except antipathy to the State of Israel. To be sure, hostility toward the Jew is not limited to what was once called Persia and is now called Iran. It has been the lot and destiny of the Jew in practically every age and every corner of the globe. No one can look at the era of Nazi persecution, for example, without feeling the terrible isolation of the Jew that resulted from an entire world closing its eyes and ears to what transpired in the concentration camps. Neither can one perceive the plight of modern Israel without sensing the horrible alienation that comes from having to face your enemies with virtually no country except the United States being at all concerned about the justice of your cause or the outcome of your suffering. Even France, the birthplace of the Enlightenment as well as "liberty, equality and fraternity" for all, is a hotbed today of acrimonious anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, an old adage tells us that there is no ill wind that doesn't bring somebody some good. That very isolation and hostility, so frequently encountered by Jews, has generated a sense of purpose within the Jewish community which is assuredly essential to its survival. Just as adversity brought the ancient Jews of Persia together under the leadership of Mordecai and Esther, so world-wide difficulties have created an involvement and participation among Jews today, both in Israel and the Diaspora, that have helped to maintain and strengthen our way of life. The realization that no one is going to take care of us unless we take care of ourselves sensitizes the Jewish community to an unshirkable responsibility for its own well-being. As one modern Jewish writer has said: "I would not love Israel so much if I did not fear so greatly for her safety." To those of us educated in liberal Western ideals, Jewish isolation appears to violate the cosmopolitan identity that is supposed to be the hallmark of the human species in our time. It is not easy to accept the possibility that so many facile assumptions regarding the ultimate unity of humanity may take longer to achieve than we originally thought or may even be an illusion. Nevertheless, that very cosmopolitanism that so many of us cherish has also spawned problems of its own in the form of assimilation, secularism and conversion. Our disappointment over the failure of the rest of the world to welcome the Jew into its ranks on equal terms, therefore, is tempered by the vibrancy, solidarity, commitment and friendship within the ranks that have flowed from our isolation. Perennial loneliness, isolation, and alienation are difficult realities to which to adjust; but they have at least kept the fires of Judaism burning a little more brightly. Happy Purim!