RABBI JACOB JUNGREIS, KEYNOTE ADDRESS: HOPE IN THE FACE OF DESPAIR
Israel will not be vanquished by Hamas or wiped off the map by Iran, or anyone. No one will ever push us out of our homeland, said the rabbi. The rabbi reminded the audience of about 300 that the Nazis did not toil alone. He spoke of the Ukrainians who rounded up 10,000 of their Jewish neighbors, forced them to dig a ditch, then shot them and pushed them in, many of them still alive. He spoke of the French government, which rousted a half-million Jews from their homes and sent them to their deaths. And he spoke of his Christian neighbors in Hungary who taunted him, as a boy of just 5 on his way to yeshiva, screaming from their windows that he killed God. This accusation that we killed their object of worship played a role, he said. It gave everyone a green light and a good excuse.1