“It took this Night to Make Us Know” is a response to the murder of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics in 1972. This article was written in 1976 by Bob Greene, a Chicago Tribune columnist. In this article, Mr. Greene refers to the young Jews, the assimilated Americans, as a generation that may not feel identified with the passed centuries of hurt, fear, and suffering. Mr. Greene also manifests that it took that night of tragedy in Munich Olympics to make Jews realize that “the hate is still strong enough” to cause murder. However, he doesn’t come up with a solution for getting along with such a tragedy. Hate among Jewish people has always be a controversial debate where every new tragedy it is instantly connected with Holocaust. It is right that the Holocaust was genocide beyond imagination; yet, it not only involved Jews but also disable people, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and others. When it comes to reality, mankind in general has always experienced coexisting difficulties such as Slavery, Homophobia, Xenophobia, or any other type of unjustified discrimination.
With a passionate tone, the author intends to persuade the readers that the young Jewish generation, which might feel bored toward traditions, should never forget its link to the past. The author sounds convincing when he delivers the message; but he mainly supports the article with non-factual supporting details. For him being a Jew, Mr. Greene’s opinion is completely biased. In order to demonstrate an actual and real threat toward Jews, Mr. Greene mentions the existence of people who walk in the night ready to show their hate against Jews. Yet, the identities of those people who walk in the night is not quite define in the article.
As per an article written by a source of Pearson Education, when Munich Olympics took place, German president Gustav Heinemann welcomed the Olympics as "a milestone on the road to a new way of life with the aim of realizing peaceful coexistence among peoples" and most Germans hoped it would, at least in some way, help to heal the racial wounds caused by Hitler. Unfortunately, the Olympics ended up with a terrorist attack where two Israelis lost their lives. Not only Jewish people, but also the entire world went through this tragedy since many countries in the world also had their sportsmen participating in the Munich Olympics.
To summarize, Mr. Greene recalls the Munich Olympics tragedy as an act intrinsically aimed to Jewish people. He exhorts the young Jewish generation not to forget ancient tragedies since they might get repeated once and once again. Ancient tragedies might get repeated once and once again not only for Jews, but also for the entire world because mankind still doesn’t know how to overcome its coexisting difficulties. The Torah indicates: “Love the stranger, for strangers you were in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). Within the cited words a judicious message is implicit, a message of love and acceptability.
Y.D.
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