So I've figured it out. Jews can assimilate all they want, but they can never acculturate. It's impossible and against the grain. It's unnatural and unkind. And damnit, it makes sense. All the assimilation in the world can't destroy the Jews, at least that's what I'm hoping.
Now, tell me why it is that the many branches of Judaism can manage to get together to fight the crazy proseletyzing Jews for Jesus, but we can't seem to stand still together for a moment on anything else? Only when we're fighting the Jesus Jews are we truly a nation, eh?
I'm going to the Holocaust Museum tomorrow with a fellow, and while I'm excited about seeing the museum again after four years and after so much has happened to me, I'm nervous. Several years ago I spent some time helping a group that was documenting survivors of camps in Europe. They would send me a scanned sheet from an old, old book. I would type the names and the camps they survived out in an Excel sheet and ship them off. I desperately wish I knew how the project turned out, and whether my meager efforts were a help. So many names, so many places. It's quite overwhelming.
Just call me Hopeful.