BCC’s father, Rabbi Dr. Samuel I. Cohen, ztl, was the Executive Vice President of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of North America for over 25 years.
Once, when BCC was a young kid, his father took BCC to JFK to meet a group of prominent Christian leaders on a mission to Israel. BCC’s father asked the Christian leaders if they can recall the names of the 12 spies Moses sent to spy out the land of Canaan?
They only recalled two of them: Joshua and Caleb, the ones who spoke positively about Israel.
BCC’s father asked whether they could recall the names of the other 10 spies who spoke negatively about Israel?
They could not recall their names, even though they were identified in the Torah in Parsha Shelach.
BCC’s father concluded: “there is a historic amnesia for those who shun and denigrate Israel; their names will be forgotten for all time, but those who stand up for it will forever be remembered!”
Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations since June 1986, and the founding executive director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, who eulogized BCC’s father quotes the above to this day.
Let’s learn the lesson properly: those who shun and denigrate Israel, will be forgotten, and those who stand up for it will forever be remembered.
