Ben Moche - April 24, 2009
Conclusion
Mm-hm. Can I ask you one last question? You were saying as you get older it's affecting you more?
Yeah it is. [pause]
Do you...
I don't know, I'm scared now, I understand that, you know. Um, why did they kill the Jews?
Mm-hm.
You know why, right? They were not a pure breed, right? What's going on now in the world?
Mm-hm.
You know, I mean, who do they want to kill now in the name of Allah?
Mm-hm, mm-hm.
What really changed?
Mm-hm.
I feel more worry now, you know. It's not a question of dying, but I feel more now. I, I get more nightmares now uh, uh, I see myself as a little kid, you know, walking with the ???, you know.
Uh-huh.
Which I never saw before.
Uh-huh. Again...
But they just happened, it's like it's just coming back, you know. And I'm, I'm connecting it.
Uh-huh. That again, the Jewish people are being threatened with annihilation.
With, annih... yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah and the feeling then was helplessness, right? And that's, but Israel you felt like, you felt strong, you felt alive, you felt...
Yeah, but you also, like my mother used to say, they gonna push us into the water.
Mm-hm.
But I didn't have that.
Mm-hm.
I mean, I was 18.
Mm-hm.
I uh, I don't have any fear right now either.
Mm-hm.
But I, I, I don't trust anybody.
Mm-hm.
Right now, you know. I mean, when I came to this country a black girl told me she says, "You Jew, you gonna have a corner store, I give you 2 months." I didn't understand what a corner store is.
Mm-hm.
But a corner store means a store in a good location.
Ah.
You know, at the corner of the street where two streets come together, you can see it from both sides, you know, so, anyhow.
Yeah, the stereotype.
Right.
Right. Alright, Mr. Ben Moche it was an honor to meet you and I, I appreciate, I know this was very hard.
Well, if those two girls could do it...
Yeah.
I can too.
They were quite an inspiration that these two young Jewish girls who have no, young women who had no connection, feel it...
Probably not Kashrut, probably, I'm not getting in I'm just saying.
Yeah, yeah, right.
But they have a flame, they have the flame.
The flame.
You know, they have the spark, they have the fire.
Yeah.
They knew who they are.
The Jews and the Jewish people will survive.
Right, so.
Okay, thank you very much.
Alright.
Alright.
Is there any organizational thing like that or...
Um...
Because I never really contacted anybody...
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn