Toto...I have a feeling...

Now I understand why Simple Jew writes his location as "Golus." Two instances happened this week that served as a harsh reminder.

1) The lesser one: I was sitting in class, and we were discussing the Neibolungenleid (I know, it's my fault, I should have realized the Liturature part of Medieval Vernacular Literature, but I just saw the Medieval Vernacular part and got excited...we'll see what happens...). It's a German folk tale that some of you more cultural types might recognize from Wagner's opera (he changed the story in the opera, as all remakes do..). Anyway, we were discussing the book, and one of the guys asked "Is Worms a real place?" I was shocked! How could he not know about Worms, one of the Oray Shum that had been completely decimated by the Crusading army in 1096? After all, isn't he a Medieval Studies major?

And then I realized. I only knew about the devistation of Worms because it happened to Jews. Nobody else cared about it.

2) The greater one: Apparantly this made it to the NY Times, but I didn't see it, so I wouldn't know. I walked into one of the school buildings on Monday, and was greeted by the following:

A canvas hut, set up inside, with Arabic lettering all over it, and people standing around it in kafiyas.

Signs saying "JNF out of Canada" and "Zionism=Racism" and "Israeli Attack Forces" with the word Israel in red letters, with flecks of blood coming off of it.

Apparantly it's Israeli Apartheid Week at the University (Do you know what apartheid is? Do you know anything about the history of South Africa? Have you been to Israel? Can it be remotely compared in any way? NOOOOOO!!!). When I walked in, quite frankly, I was frightened. I was almost scared to be Jewish. I felt like I could understand a teeny tiny bit what the Jews felt in Nazi Germany in 1933.

And that is the meaning of Galus.

So could we please please please all do teshuva and get along so that we can bring Moshiach and live in a normal world? Cause this one is not.