Build a Museum of Arab Terror

By Michael Freund

In the Finnish city of Tampere stands one of the strangest exhibitions in all of Europe. Located inside the hall where Vladimir Lenin first met Joseph Stalin in 1905, the Lenin Museum traces his life and work as he rose to power and built a communist empire.

It dates back to the Cold War, when the Soviets sought to spread socialist propaganda in the West, and is now owned and operated by the Finland-Russia Society with support from the Finnish Ministry of Education.

And while the curators of the museum insist that it presents a "critical" approach to Lenin and his labors, that is far from being the truth.

Having studied Soviet politics in my university days, I visited the museum last month expecting to find a balanced account of the man and his deeds. After all, Lenin persecuted, imprisoned and murdered his political opponents - both perceived and real, set up concentration camps for his enemies, brutally liquidated vast swathes of the Russian peasantry and engineered massive famine in the countryside.

All this in addition to bequeathing to the world totalitarian Soviet rule and paving the way for Stalin and his ruthless regime.

But you would never know it from the material on display in Tampere. Instead, the museum's guide is full of laudatory honorifics, hailing Lenin for rallying the Russian masses "to defend the socialist fatherland."

"Under his leadership, the people resisted the enemies of the revolution ever more strongly," reads the written guide to display case 13.

Lenin may have died in January 1924, "but his ideas and deeds live on," the museum helpfully assures its visitors.

After engaging in a somewhat-heated argument with the museum's employees over the unbalanced picture they presented of their subject, I left a few scathing comments in the guest book and walked out shaking my head in disbelief.

Sure, one could dismiss this place as an anachronism, a holdover from the Cold War more worthy of ridicule than respect. But the fact is that museums matter. They are society's way of telling a story, of building a narrative about the past to educate future generations. There is no telling how many people might be affected by what they see within its halls.

And it just seems so absurd that instead of telling the story of Lenin's victims, this odd little museum would prefer to glorify their killer.

BUT IT did get me thinking: Look how easy it is to distort history and to cast aside those who were terrorized, tortured and killed. Indeed, here we see this on a daily basis in how much of the mainstream media reports the conflict in the Middle East. History is being written, and the truth is being twisted, before our very eyes every day.

What will happen 25 or 50 years from now, when people look back on the events of today? Will anyone remember the recent struggle of the people of Sderot and the rockets they endured, or the suicide bombings? I suspect that much of this is already being forgotten, if only because of the natural human tendency to try to bury the painful past.

But we must take steps to ensure this does not occur, and that the truth is not obscured by propaganda. The government therefore should build of a museum of Arab terror with the goal of documenting and commemorating the victims of Arab violence. Such a museum would not only serve to remind its visitors of the immense human suffering that terror has inflicted on Israel over the decades, but would also honor those who lost their lives to this scourge.

Though a monument to victims of terror was established on Mount Herzl, where an annual ceremony is now held on Remembrance Day, much more can and should be done to perpetuate their legacy - and a museum can do just that.

With effective displays and relevant historical information and photographs, such a museum can help to educate the public about the past and thereby better prepare them for the future. And it will help to counter those who try to falsify our history.

Like it or not, the only way to truly appreciate the difficulties this country has faced, and to comprehend its struggle for survival, is to study and understand the phenomenon of Arab violence and hatred.

Upon completion, the museum of Arab terror should become a mandatory part of every foreign dignitary's state visit, and it should be incorporated into the curriculum of every high school student in the country.

It might sound like a dismal or gloomy theme upon which to base an exhibition. But museums are akin to a nation's collective memory bank, and one never knows the impact they can have. The erection of a museum of Arab terror would be an important step toward ensuring that its victims, unlike those of Lenin and his ilk, will not be forgotten.

A Place Where Israel is Loved

By Michael Freund

Tucked away in a far corner of northern Europe, the tranquil and resourceful nation of Finland often gets unjustly overlooked. Flanked by a swaggering and increasingly quarrelsome Russia to the east and its larger and blonder Swedish neighbor to the west, the Finns seem to receive neither the attention nor the consideration that they rightly deserve.

Indeed, despite being beset by harsh winters and a dearth of arable land, as well as enjoying the dubious distinction of being the European Union's most sparsely populated country, Finland has nonetheless built one of the most pleasant and peaceful societies on the entire continent.

There is little crime and virtually no political corruption, and public places are spotlessly clean, bordering on the pristine. It is akin in many ways to Switzerland, except that the Finns are nice.

But there is something else that distinguishes Finland, setting it apart from much of the rest of contemporary Europe, and that is the deep-seated love and admiration for Israel that exists among large sectors of the public.

On a recent trip to the country, which included a lecture tour in six towns and cities, I found what can only be described as a remarkable level of support for the Jewish state, one that cuts across religious and regional boundaries. From the capital of Helsinki to Tampere, Finland's third largest city, to the small town of Ikaalinen in the western part of the country, hundreds of non-Jews in each locale came out to demonstrate their solidarity.

There are churches where the Israeli flag is proudly displayed side-by-side with the Finnish national colors, and where entire Christian congregations recite "Hatikva" first in Hebrew and then in Finnish.

Literally dozens of Finns approached me to recount how proud they were to have spent periods of time volunteering in Israel at schools and in hospitals or on kibbutzim. They voiced great concern over Iran and its nuclear ambitions, and many pray for Israel and its welfare daily.

In Helsinki, Pastor Seppo Seppala approached me and, much to my surprise, engaged me in conversation in fluent Hebrew. He has been to Israel dozens of times, and continues to bring groups of Finnish tourists. And he is not alone. Without exception, after every speech I gave, there were always several non-Jews who came up to me and addressed me in Hebrew. Many take part in weekly private Hebrew classes, taught by fellow non-Jews, simply out of a love for the language and the people of Israel.

PARTICULARLY NOTEWORTHY is the fact that Finnish Christian support for the Jewish state is not the province of any one particular denomination, but rather it includes such diverse groups as Baptists, Pentecostals and Lutherans. However much they might disagree over theological or doctrinal issues, when it comes to Israel they stand united.

This was most evident at a day-long meeting I attended on June 14 in Heinola, a town in the south-central part of the country. Organized by the dynamic Finnish branch of the International Christian Embassy-Jerusalem (ICEJ) under the leadership of Juha Ketola, it brought together dozens of pro-Israel community leaders from across the country to discuss efforts to promote and support aliya.

For the past two decades, the Finns have been actively involved in helping Jews from the former Soviet Union to move to Israel, and Helsinki served as a gateway to Zion after the fall of communism.

On March 10, 1990, the indefatigable Kaarlo and Ulla Jarvilehto, a former member of the Finnish parliament who headed the ICEJ Finland branch at the time, teamed up with the Jewish Agency to help the first Soviet Jewish family go through Helsinki on its way to Tel Aviv. Since then, the Finns have sponsored the aliya of well over 17,000 Russian Jews.

As I sat and listened to the proceedings with the aid of a translator, an extraordinary exchange unfolded. The representatives discussed contingency plans in case there was a crisis and large numbers of Jews had to leave for Israel via Finland at a moment's notice. They then began to argue with one another - politely, of course - over which Finnish towns or cities would welcome the Jews, with each one wanting to make sure that his or her community was not left out.

I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that after centuries in which Europeans often vied with one another to get rid of Jews, here were Finns competing for the right to host them.

What accounts for this phenomenon? To some extent, it is based on certain parallels between Finland and Israel, both of which are small countries which had to fight for independence and whose historically ravenous neighbors have occasionally coveted their land. But in many instances, it is because Finnish Christians feel a profound religious and spiritual obligation to champion Israel due to God's promise to Abraham that "I will bless those who bless you" (Genesis 12:3).

OF COURSE, not all is rosy in Finland. In January, for example, the Finnish Green League's paper Vihrea Lanka published a cartoon strip in which the Star of David was compared to a swastika. The paper's editor offered a peculiar justification for the caricature, asserting that "it is quite clearly the flag of Israel featured in the strip and not just any Star of David," as if that somehow makes it OK.

And the general Finnish media, like much of the mainstream press throughout Western Europe, is often biased and slanted in its coverage of the Middle East.

Nonetheless, it is refreshing to see that there is a place in Europe where Israel is truly loved. So much of our focus is on our foes and those who hate us, that we often don't pay enough attention to our friends.

This needs to change, and Israel and world Jewry must do more to cultivate relations with Helsinki, where the ground is fertile for deepening the bonds of friendship between the two countries. For at a time when anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment are on the rise, it is comforting to know that in at least one corner of Europe, there are countless thousands of good and decent people with a warm place in their hearts for the Jewish state.

--- from the July 1 Jerusalem Post