"Where, then, in the final analysis, does our identity and our uniqueness lie? Certainly not in our being victims; there have been and are victims, including whole peoples who were wiped out without a trace and not compassionately. We have existed as a people for a very long time, and during this time we have indeed amassed a difficult and tortuous history, and very often we were victims. But our uniqueness lies not in what others do to us, but in ourselves alone, in our selfhood, our character, and our culture. It lies in our reality, which is, perhaps, different from that of others. How is it different? In our "who," in our "how." Not what was done to us, but who we are. The uniqueness of a Jew is not in his being a victim. It is in his being a Jew, a proud son of a people at least four thousand years old, who built a humane present and ask for an attainable future. Not a future of messianic proportions, but one of human dimensions."
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Jews from IsraelNon-fiction authors from IsraelWomen authors from PolandPoets from IsraelEssayists from Israel
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Shulamith Hareven
Shulamith Hareven (Hebrew: ืฉืืืืืช ืืจืืื; pen name, Tal Yaeri; February 14, 1930 โ November 25, 2003) was a Jewish author and essayist who was born in Warsaw, Poland and later lived many years in Israel.
138 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Shulamith Hareven โ
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