GadolHadofi > espite to the inconvenient fact that their leadership discouraged leaving Europe
I think Beltzer Rebbe admitted his mistake. Don’t have a quote handy though.
Take yourself back to Poland 1920s – after Poland restored independence at the fall of Russian Empire and after they defeated USSR attempt to re-acquire in 1920. What were Jews doing and what would be the most important thing for Jews to do at the time?
Jews were for first time in a long time empowered (previous experience was Vaad Arba Artzos under sovereign Poland in 17xx) – mostly fighting between each other and against the government – in politics, culture, religion. same things Poles themselves were doing with their first experience with democracy.
In 1939, Poles were blindsided by Nazi and Soviet armies that came with airplanes and tanks instead of cavalry. But Poles are known for their bravery, not for their learning. Would it be wise for Jews in 1920 to take seriously their responsibility as citizens of Poland, review geopolitical situation, and discover the problem? What if Chofetz Chaim met Polish president and instead of, or in addition to, crying to protect under-sanitized mikvas, presented him with an analysis of military capabilities based on clandestine contacts with german and russian jews? Given what we know by now what Jews in Israel and US are capable of, this would have been possible. We have discussions in the Gemora about Jews giving advice to various kings, including an assertion in Avoda Zorah that Jews joined Rome in defeating Greeks and rules jointly for 26 years …