THE MEASURE OF FAITH

T troubles me to see the hate spewed indiscriminately on all Jews everywhere.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

The targeted attacks on them painfully bring back memories of the Pahalgam massacre.I have never supported Hamas, which the Palestinians have kept in power since 2007, and fully collude with, as we saw on October 7. I was horrified by the widely reported views of a senior founding member of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, in 2023, that “Israel is only the first target. The entire planet will be under our law.” He meant that the goal of Hamas was that Islam would rule the world, crushing other faiths. As an Indian, I cannot support those who hold such views. So, please understand, I am not against Muslims en masse, but against this stated goal of Hamas.

My experience with Jewish people has always been pleasant, right from childhood. My school in Bombay was run by a dashing Jewish lady, Sophie Kelly, and I recall seeing the palm hut for the Sukkot festival put up each year on her big balcony. I had Jewish classmates when I lived in Kochi, and my mother had Jewish friends. I was invited to Passover Seder in Delhi. I grew up admiring Jewish people for their brilliance and work ethic.

Despite endless persecution, they excelled in medicine, agriculture and technology, won more Nobels than most for advancing human knowledge and produced some of the most uplifting music the world has ever heard. Scholar David Shulman of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, pulled off a civilisational coup in 2016 with his book, Tamil: A Biography.