Address to AJEX annual remembrance service

Below is my address to the annual remembrance service of the Brighton and Hove branch of the Association of Jewish Ex-servicemen and Ex-servicewomen. I quote a rabbi’s incredibly powerful war poem which I all but guarantee you haven’t read before.

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11 comments

  1. “Dr Goller’s helplessness and bafflement leap off the page as he
    tries to encapsulate the utter idiocy of war as a method of settling
    human conflict.
    [3] Not only is there no guarantee that whoever wins a war – not that
    anybody can truly ‘win’ such a destructive phenomenon in which there
    are only losers – not only is there no guarantee that whoever wins a
    war in any sense has right or justice on their side. Not only that, but
    war leads to the most tragic and absurd consequences.”

    The Second World War was a just way of settling human conflict and the winners had justice in their side. Your speech suggests that war is wrong, unjust and a bad way of settling conflict. It’s not always.

  2. “Therefore, as, in a few moments’ time, we open the ark to recite
    our memorial prayers, I invite you to reflect and contemplate on the
    futility of armed conflict, on the irrational and vainglorious
    wickedness of war, on the countless lives decimated by this great evil,
    and the duty incumbent on each and every one of us to remember and
    to share these messages. רצון יהי כן, may this be God’s will.”

    But war is not always futile, it is not always irrational or vainglorious or wicked. Sometimes it is just and prevents a greater evil. Pacifism is not a Jewish idea.

  3. You quoted it approvingly and the quotation in my second comment is all you. Judaism-adjacent is how I’d describe your sermons.

      1. If you quote something approvingly then you should be prepared to defend it. What I find distressing is that this type of primary school assembly morality is passed off as Judaism.

        1. May I respectfully suggest that, if you’re distressed that I’m quoting an (Orthodox) rabbi as indicative of a Jewish perspective, you need to work on becoming more robust?

  4. Is war always utter idiocy as a method of settling human conflict? Or are there times when it can prevent a greater evil?

Comments? Queries? Questions? Observations?