re: #9 researchok

I believe that societies have memories, too. The stories and history are handed down from generation to generation. In closed societies, the fact that your great-great grandmother was raped by Cossacks while the Tsar’s police stood by and laughed is a very powerful teaching. It should also be pointed out that Jews were allowed to immigrate into the United States under the condition that Jewish society would find a way to support its own poor and needy (see The Jews in America). So, looking inward in the first instance is not such a far throw for Jews even in this country.