Each generation finds a different pathway— so what if ours takes a detour through the graveyard?
PHOTO:SHUTTERSTOCK/ PRASZKIEWICZ
The Czarist forgers who wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were wrong about many things. For one thing, we control the media in about the same way that we control the weather — namely, not at all. Forget global confabs of Jewish moneymen — Davos’s World Economic Forum is headed by a Catholic. And while our elders are indeed elderly, their identities are only shadowy if you don’t read the Yated.
One thing the anti-Semites got right, though: We do love graveyards. Whether Prague or anywhere else, kevarim exert a magnetic pull on us. How else to explain the fact that airports from Moldova to Morocco are choked with Jews heading to an endless stream of yahrtzeits and hilullas?
Every few years, it seems, another tzaddik is put on the pilgrimage map. Take Kerestir, for example. While the Tzaddik of Kerestir was very well known during his lifetime, twenty years ago, who beyond a few insiders had heard of Reb Shaya’le?
The trend — growing for decades — is increasingly color-blind and non-sectarian. Sephardim now flood Europe, and Ashkenazim return the compliment in North Africa. (All wearing abnormal headgear. You must either wear a Russian fur hat, a flat cap like a British country squire on a foxhunt, or a baseball cap that clashes with your suit.)
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