Der Nister on authority

Subway Crown Heights Brooklyn 2, originally uploaded by dj carlito.

Der Nister describes rather comical fear of officials amongst the Berdichever Jews. Even mentioning the name of a policemen sends fear, never mind actually seeing someone who has brass buttons. One policeman, just by showing up, can scatter raging, pillaging crowd. Some of the descriptions might be alluding to the Soviet reality, when in fact this fear was justified. But perhaps not entirely, this utter subjugation was a precursor of the slaughter when the jews were led like sheep. It also explains powerful pull of the revolutionists who in one broad stroke had courage to dream about taking down the slavery, taking down the injustice of the polarized society, taking down the gvirim who wanted to keep Jews poor and in fear and taking down the Rebbes who were the shameful enablers of the injustice.

Fast forward to Crown Heights with a YouTube video of a protest with a Jewish lady pointing her finger at a policemen and screaming that he can’t even look her in a eye (a lady with tichel what’s to look police in an eye? Oh, never mind). My, how the times have changed.