Jews in the Eastern European country of Moldova erected a menorah at the capital’s main square. Local Christian vigilantes quickly tore it down, at which point the Jews started protesting and a local Judenrat leader even asked the church to condemn the vandals.
Now, the Moldovans are right. They are a Christian country, they dislike Jews, and they do not want to see a Jewish ritual candelabra in their main square. Just as we want to remove Al Aqsa, they are justified in removing a menorah.
Assimilated Jews want to become a part of Christian society and sport menorahs in public, which they have no right to do. A menorah in the Diaspora is an absurdity: it signifies the triumph of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and has no place in a Christian country with only 20,000 Jews.
But if Moldovan Jews want a public menorah, they must be prepared to defend it like the Maccabees did, rather than appealing to the church.
The capital church and Jewish leader will hardly find a compromise. It’s a sad truth that because of the peculiarities of their character Jews are not welcome anywhere.That’s why the capital church and Jewish leader had this conflict.
The citizens of Moldova demonstrated their emothins like Jews themselves did in France destroying a PLO-store.