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Despair is not a word in the Jewish vocabulary.

Nonetheless, two recent stories about Gush Katif and the Gaza disengagement brought me close to tears of despair. What's even more frustrating than the facts themselves is the deafening sound of silence that these two situations brought about.

According to an article by Hillel Fendel, titled, "Gush Katif Prayer Books Found Strewn About," holy prayer books and Sifrei Torah were removed from destroyed Gush Katif synagogues and there was no uproar. The sacred items were left desecrated and unwanted for three years and we didn't hear a sound. The books were thrown into crates and ignored and it didn't even make the news - not the destruction of the buildings themselves nor the neglect of the holy books.

Over the past year Gush Katif residents requested countless times that the Sela Disengagement Administration and representatives of the Department of Religious Affairs allow them to get to the storehouses and they were denied. It turned out that the problem was that Sela hadn't paid the owners of the storehouses and so the owners wouldn't let anyone in.

By the time the crates were accessed by some expelled residents of Gush Katif they almost cried at what they saw. (web site)

"When we arrived, we were horrified to see the Desecration of G-d's Name that was there," said Aviel Tucker of the former town of Netzer Hazani. "Sacred books were strewn about on the floor and in undignified piles, with bird droppings all over them. It was tremendously sad for us to see pieces of our beautiful synagogue - parts of the Holy Ark, benches, and memorial plaques - strewn about with abandon or worse."

"We felt that we were sharing the same fate," Aviel said. "Not only have we, the residents, been humiliated and expelled in disgrace, but also the sacred books and G-d's Name."

Something tells me that if it was Mosques that were destroyed and Korans that were desecrated, the media would be hovering over this story like a mother bird over her young. An immediate outcry from many different circles would have called attention to the dire situation and money would have been raised to get the storehouses open to save the holy books from desecration.

In fact, just a short while ago I was interviewed on Arutz Sheva, Israel's national radio about the dangers of missionaries and cults to the spiritual welfare of Jews in Israel and around the world.

The incident that brought the interview was an uproar in Israel over 'religious' books that were desecrated. When missionaries in Israel gave out unasked for, unwanted new testaments as part of their mission to proselytize Jews and lure them away from their religion, inhabitants of an Israeli town took the books and burned them. The Israeli police took it upon themselves to look into the incident and to consider pressing charges against the Jews who tried to protect their brethren from those who dirty Israel's streets with their missionary filth trying to 'save' Jewish souls. They were looking into prison time for those who destroyed 'holy books' belonging to missionaries. Yet Jewish books can be neglected and no one says a word?

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