Vengeance Is Mine!

Translation / Interpretation / Caption Text / Source

Hebrew translation:

(From the "Blue and White In Color: Visual Images of Zionism 1897 - 1947" catalog)

A poster of the Labor Federation (Histadrut) dated May 1, 1945, shows soldiers attacking under the flag of the Jewish Brigade, but the caption "For Vengeance Is Mine" (Deutronomy 32: 35) is mainly wishful thinking. The Brigade was not able to wreak vengeance on the Nazis for the extermination of the Jews, but the very presence of Jewish troops fighting under a Zionist flag constituted some kind of revenge" P. 115

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Analysis / Interpretation / Press / Source

EXCERPT

On Jewish Revenge

Aeon - 17 May 2024

By: Shachar Pinsker

Is there a distinctive Jewish perspective on revenge? The question obviously bears on the contemporary world in pressing ways. Revenge is a complex concept about which psychology, anthropology, philosophy, law and other fields offer important perspectives. But one way to answer it is to turn to the history of Jewish life, literature and culture. Here we can find a distinctive feeling and action on a matter that is as old as humanity, a human feeling in response to an injury or harm, and one closely bound to ideals of justice. The mid-20th century in particular, a formative period of Jewish and Israeli existence, has much to tell us about the relationship between violence, revenge, justice, memory and trauma in Jewish and Israeli life.

Since 7 October 2023, nekama (‘vengeance’ or ‘revenge’ in Hebrew) has emerged as one of the key words in Israeli public life. We’ve heard discussion of nekama from the government, the Knesset, the media, the army, social networks, synagogue bulletins, and in popular culture. Perhaps the most immediate and relevant invocation came on the same day of Hamas’s attack, from the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared: ‘The IDF will immediately employ all its power to destroy Hamas’s capabilities. We will strike them until they are crippled, and we will avenge with full force this black day they inflicted upon the State of Israel and its citizens.’ In the past few months, there were many poems on revenge written by Israelis, some of them IDF soldiers.

Source:

https://aeon.co/essays/what-role-for-revenge-in-jewish-life-literature-and-culture