Need for Lebensraum? A Drash for Parashat Toldot, 2 November 2013

In  Germany's Pfalzerwald today

The A6 Autobahn crosses a very picturesque part of south-western Germany and north-eastern France.  Starting northeast of Mannheim, it crosses the Rheine River between Mannheim and Worms.  It then climbs into the forests of the Rhineland Pfalz and slices west-south-west across the Palatinate, descending to the French crossing just past Saarbrucken.  Just inside France, it merges with the A4 Autoroute, which in turn carries its traffic towards and into Paris.

For four years, I lived just off the A6, on Ramstein Air Base, just west of the lovely city of Kaiserslautern, affectionately referred to as ‘K-Town.’  It was a busy four years.  By and large we enjoyed living in such a pretty corner of the world.  If we travelled south from the base, crossing over the A-6, we would be in the wonderland of the Pfalzerwald, the Palatinate Forest.  If we drove north, we would be in the agricultural part of the Palatinate, an area of picturesque villages separated by rolling fields.  I’m something of an Urban Cowboy, having grown up in New York and Miami, but I did thoroughly enjoy living in such a rural area for a few years.

The visual pleasures of life in Germany aside, people often ask me how I felt, as a Jew after the Holocaust, living in Germany.  And my answer is that most of the time, I did not dwell on this istory.  I did only at selected moments.  There were basically three sights that would set me off, getting me to thinking about the events of the Nazi Holocaust.  And what were those three sights?

Every time I passed the railroad yards, and saw the round-topped goods wagons, the sight evoked thoughts of the Nazi era.  American boxcars are flat-topped, and before my arrival in Germany I had seen images of those round-topped wagons mostly in conjunction with histories of the Holocaust.

Likewise when passing the railroad yards, whenever I saw the sign Umschlagplatz, that would evoke memories of the Holocaust.  The word umschlagplatz means, simply, loading or embarkation place.  But in every first person account I’ve ever read, of someone deported to the concentration camps, they were always herded by the SS to the local umschlagplatz for loading onto the cattle-wagons that would carry them to Auschwitz or wherever.

Finally, whenever I was driving through the vast, largely empty German countryside I would think of the word lebensraum and that would evoke thoughts and feelings concerning the Nazi era.  Lebensraum means ‘living space,’ but it is a loaded phrase.  Lebensraum was the justification for the annexation of the Czech Sudentenland and other Nazi expansions eastward.  The underlying philosophy was that the Aryan Germans being the ‘master race,’ merited the lands of ‘inferior’ peoples so that the German people could flourish and increase.  This way, they would grasp at their destiny to rule over these ‘inferiors.’  So whenever I drove in the largely-empty countryside north of the A6 and grasped how much room there was for population expansion even 60 years after the end of the war, I would shake my head with disgust.

This week’s Torah portion, Toldot, contains an account of the search by Isaac for lebensraum.  Isaac did not do as the Germans had in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.  He did not conquer other peoples, and subject or exterminate them, in order to get their land.  But he did move his herds and flocks around in search of land where he could pasture them in peace.

Isaac wandered to Gerar and lived there in peace with the locals for a time until his herds and flocks increased to the point of frightening the natives of the land.  They were content to have him in their midst for a time, until he had grown large and powerful enough to where they feared him.  Abimelech, king of Gerar, asked him to leave in order to keep the peace amongst his people.  Isaac then wandered the region in search of lebensraum.  If Isaac had had only small holdings, he would have found an easier welcome but given the size of his herds and flocks, it took some time and some conflict before he found a place to settle.

The whole episode brings to mind the difficulty that displaced people have faced over history.  Some populations will never accept a presence that they consider ‘alien’ in their midst.  Despite the land’s ability to absorb further inhabitants, and despite the newcomers’ obvious distress, they will never be accepted by the ‘natives.’

And then there are the places where migrants find some degree of acceptance.  This, as long as they are not seen to be a threat to the existing population either because of their sheer numbers or because of some other aspect that causes the natives to fear them.

Of course, I feel some temptation to draw some parallel with the current situation here in Australia.  We have a population of migrants who want to come here – who are coming here by various means and who would come in ever larger numbers givens additional means.  For better or worse, this is considered one of the top domestic issues of the day.  Several of my colleagues in the Progressive Rabbinate have spoken quite forcefully about it.  And they have, without exception, put Australia in the former category.  They tell us that we’re a racist country, that no group of migrants would be accepted in our midst without a struggle.

On the other hand, in conversations with others here, I’ve been told that Australia more properly belongs in the latter category.  That these migrants who are attempting to come here, are not finding open arms because of their sheer numbers.  And because of the sense that, when they do come, they cannot be absorbed.  And that fearing them does not represent a baseless phobia, rather a reasonable concern.  These voices tell me to look at the history of Australia’s acceptance of wave after wave of migrants and refugees from various places, as evidence that the county and her inhabitants fall into the latter category.

And then there are those who ask me to look at the past, at the way migrant groups have been spoken about in the past, as evidence that the reluctance to take in the current crop of migrants is just a continuation of old attitudes towards any migrants.

It’s not my place to tell you which of the two kinds of places Australia is.  But I think it’s important that Australians are able to have an honest conversation about under what circumstances they are willing to take in migrants.  Unfortunately, that honest conversation does not seem to be happening.  Whenever I hear people discussing the issue, either person-to-person or through writing, it seems that there’s a great deal of reluctance, on the part of those who are reluctant to accept the newcomers, to speak openly.  They have been lectured ad infinitum that their ambivalence towards the newcomers reflects a systemic and essential ‘racism’ on the part of the Australian people.  In other words, there’s a form of ‘political correctness’ hampering the conversation.  And that is not a good thing.  Any seemly intractable issue will be and remain intractable if honest conversation is not forthcoming.

Our patriarch Isaac and his household and his holdings had a difficult time finding a place to settle in order to live – and grow – in peace.  In this they were not unique in history.  Throughout history, many peoples have been forced to migrate due to famine or war or persecution.  When they did, their receptions varied.  Some found hermetically-sealed borders, keeping them out at any cost and without any consideration.  Some found reluctant passage through the border but little real acceptance.  Some found acceptance and integration with open arms.  The nature of the reception depended on a complex composite stemming from an array of circumstances and attitudes.

Because of the sense that certain aspects of the debate concerning the current refugee issue are off-limits, it is difficult to come to a societal agreement on what kind of place Australia really is vis-à-vis the acceptance of refugees.  But only in the framework of such an agreement, would it be possible to deal honestly with the current issue.  It is my prayer that Australians will ultimately be able to sort this out, and thus solve this issue.  Shabbat shalom.