Is it the only historic mission of the Jewish people to replenish the supply of victims for each succeeding holocaust? Most practicing Jews would probably support the statement that the primary mission of Judaism is to bring the word of God - together with its promise of universal order - to a less-than-perfect humankind. Despite all those noble efforts, however, the species remains every bit as imperfect as it has ever been.

Meanwhile, instead of their devotions bringing us nearer to the fulfillment of that dream of world order, the disorder that is rising in its stead is growing and accelerating with each passing day.

Whether or not it is out of resentment of their messianic self-certainty, for the six thousand years of their recorded existence Jews have remained the targets of first resort in organized societal violence, irrespective of the type of malaise that happened to beset humanity. Now, after all those millenia and with the next Holocaust already bearing down on us so imminently, common sense demands that an entirely new approach by the Jews is desperately needed; one that hopefully might spare their children more of the forced expulsions, pogroms, inquisitions and death, that have regularly been the lot of their ancestors.

Our continued failure to face this issue head-on despite what has become an absolutely predictable and seemingly endless series of tragedies, must compel any honest historian of the future to record that the sole function of Jews apparently is to replenish the supply of victims for each succeeding Holocaust!

Think about this - preferably while you are reciting Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) for all those who perished in the most recent one.