周日，一名耶路撒冷市政工作人员在悬挂美国国旗，为乔·拜登总统即将到来的访问做准备。“让我们看到美国永远支持像以色列这样的盟友，”作者说。

Uluru National Park, Northern Territory, Australia – The world’s largest rock is red, beautiful and resembles a giant meteor that fell out of the sky and stands squarely in the middle of Australia. I have visited Uluru (formerly known as Ayer’s Rock) before, especially in the Australian summer, when I felt I was placed in an oven that was set to hard broil and tormented mercilessly by flies. I have never experienced such extreme heat. Israel in high summer is Scandinavia compared Australia’s bright red center.

澳大利亚北领地乌鲁鲁国家公园——这世界上最大的岩石，红色，美丽，像一颗从天上掉下来的巨大流星，笔直地矗立在澳大利亚中部。我以前去过乌鲁鲁（以前被称为艾耶尔岩石），尤其是在澳大利亚的夏天，当时我觉得自己被放在一个烤箱里，苍蝇无情地折磨着我。我从未经历过如此酷热的天气。以色列的盛夏，相比澳大利亚，简直就像在北欧。

Coming here in the winter is a more civilized experience, except one major omission: Americans. There are Asian and European visitors here. But we have not encountered even a single American. Which has worked somewhat in our favor as we’re the exotic family from half a world away.

冬天来到这里是一种更文明的体验，不过省略了一群重要的人：美国人。这里有亚欧游客。但我们甚至没有遇到一个美国人。这在一定程度上对我们有利，因为我们是来自半个世界之远的异国。

And how do Australians and Europeans see Americans?

澳大利亚人和欧洲人如何看待美国人？

Well, there was the woman from Alice Springs whom we asked to take our picture in front of the great rock. After joking that she’d have to account for my height (small) and my girth (slightly larger), she put down the camera and said. “Are you sure you’re American? I’ve never met a self-deprecating American.” She was totally serious. The Americans she’s met, she explained to me, are boisterous braggarts who assume the own the world.

嗯，有一个来自爱丽丝·斯普林斯的女人，我们要求她在大岩石前拍照。在开玩笑说她必须考虑我的身高（小）和腰围（稍大）后，她放下相机说。“你确定你是美国人吗？我从没见过一个自嘲的美国人。”她完全是认真的。她向我解释说，她遇到的美国人都是狂妄自大的人，他们自以为拥有世界。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Her descxtion did not accord with my knowledge of my fellow countrymen, so let’s assume she had a bad experience.

她的描述与我对同胞的了解不符，所以让我们假设她有过不好的经历。


Then there were the many Australians we met in Sydney, Australia’s leading city where my wife was born and raised, and where my parents-in-law live. They described to us a vision of Americans as a nation of people who first and foremost walk around breathing on each other in order to spread covid. Australia, along with China, had the strictest lockdowns in the world - a fact justified, I’m assuming, by seeing Americans walking around with lungs like jet engines that were spewing out coronavirus.

然后是我们在悉尼遇到的许多澳大利亚人，悉尼是我妻子出生和长大的澳大利亚主要城市，也是我岳父岳母居住的地方。他们向我们描述了这样一个愿景：美国人首先是四处走动，相互呼吸，以传播新冠肺炎。澳大利亚和中国一样，执行了世界上最严格的封锁——因为看到美国人带着像喷气发动机一样的肺部四处走动，喷出冠状病毒，我觉得他们说的对。

They must also assume that Americans are a superior race of invincible humanoids because they all have a vision of America being a place where bullets are whizzing by city streets from the moment you wake until late at night. What do we Americans do with our time? Why shoot each other, of course.

他们还必须假设美国人是无敌类人种族中的佼佼者，因为他们都认为美国是一个从你醒来到深夜子弹在城市街道上呼啸的地方。我们美国人用我们的时间做什么？当然，为什么不互相射击呢。

This past weekend, the terrible and tragic news of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe being assassinated hit Australia. To say it barely made news would be an exaggeration, but to say that it immediately disappeared from the front pages is entirely accurate. Imagine this, even though Australia is a country deeply tied to Asia, with China and Japan looming large for the Australian economy, in that order.

上周末，日本前首相安倍晋三遇刺的可怕悲惨消息袭击了澳大利亚。说它几乎没有成为新闻是夸大其词，但说它立即从头版消失是完全准确的。试想一下，尽管澳大利亚是一个与亚洲有着密切联系的国家，中国和日本在澳大利亚经济中的地位也正是如此。

The same Japanese force that attacked Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, attacked Darwin, Australia, just three months later. So you’d expect that any news pertaining to the actual murder by gunfire of the most consequential Japanese prime minister since the Second World War would be a huge story.

1941年12月袭击珍珠港的同一支日本军队在三个月后袭击了澳大利亚的达尔文。因此，你可以预料到，关于二战以来最重要的日本首相被枪杀的消息理应是一个大新闻。

It was not. Had it been a murderous gun rampage in the United States it would have rocked Australia and reinforced the notion that America is becoming a nation of violence lunatics who pray to Jesus in the morning, shoot each other in the afternoon, and then get on their knees and pay homage to Donald Trump at night.

事实并非如此。如果这是美国的一场凶残的枪支暴乱，它将震撼澳大利亚，并强化这样一种观念：美国正在成为一个暴力疯子的国家，他们早上向耶稣祈祷，下午相互射击，然后在晚上跪下向唐纳德·特朗普致敬。

WHICH LEADS me to a conclusion.

这让我得出了一个结论。

When I was a boy growing up Miami Beach, Florida, and saw how much disproportionate coverage the tiny state of Israel received, I began to understand the adage that “Jews are news.” There is nothing the Jewish nation does that does not receive an insane amount of coverage, for better and for worse.

当我还是个小男孩的时候，我在佛罗里达州的迈阿密海滩长大，看到这个小小的以色列国受到了如此多不成比例的报道，我开始理解“犹太人是新闻”这句格言无论是好是坏，犹太民族所做的一切都会得到疯狂的报道。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


The magnetic pull of the Jewish people, in general, and the Jewish state, in particular, to the front pages of the world’s media reinforces an idea of the Jewish people as a chosen nation. A nation whose obsession by the other members of the world community bespeaks an evident, if unacknowledged role of spiritual leadership, just as the Bible declared when it marked the Jews as a “light unto the nations.”

一般来说，犹太人民，特别是犹太国家，对世界媒体头版的吸引力，强化了犹太人民作为一个被选择的国家的观念。一个被国际社会其他成员所困扰的国家，就算没得到广泛承认，也表明了以色列起着一种明显的精神领导作用，正如《圣经》在将犹太人标记为“作列国的光”时所宣称的那样。

Readers of my columns will know that I have long lamented the Jewish refusal to assume that mantle of leadership. I feel strongly that the Jewish people should be at the forefront of teaching the world about resting on the Sabbath (resting does not mean going to the cineplex or shopping mall), honoring parents (which does not imply consigning them to a nursing home), honoring the sacred vows of marriage (which includes not betraying one another with unhealthy porn addiction), being scrupulously honest in business (even if it means losing money in the short term), tithing (not easy in a bad economy), and regular communal engagement (whether through Synagogue, other houses of worship, or helping to build communal life).

我专栏的读者会知道，我长期以来一直对犹太人拒绝承担领导责任感到遗憾。我强烈认为，犹太人应该教育世界在安息日休息（休息并不意味着去电影院或购物中心）、尊重父母（这并不意味着把他们送到疗养院）、尊重神圣的婚姻誓言（其中包括不因不健康的色情成瘾而背叛彼此），在商业上严格诚实（即使这意味着在短期内亏损）、交十一税（在经济不景气的情况下不容易）和定期的社区参与（无论是通过犹太教、其他礼拜堂，还是帮助建立社区生活）。

Whenever we travel as an Orthodox Jewish family, we feel a special responsibility – wearing kippot and tzitzit – not only not to make a chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name through unethical behavior), but to consecrate God’s name through positive action.

每当我们作为一个正统的犹太家庭旅行时，我们都会感到一种特殊的责任——穿着基波特和䍁子——不仅要做一个冷酷的哈希姆（通过不道德的行为亵渎上帝的名字），而且要通过积极的行动神圣上帝的名。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Here at Uluru, smack at the center of Australia, Jews are barely known, Judaism much less so. When we explained our Sabbath restrictions to hotel staff, they nodded in respectful acknowledgment and told us they understand that we’re Seventh Day Adventists. We could have left it at that.

在澳大利亚中部的乌鲁鲁，犹太人几乎不为人知，犹太教则更不为人所知。当我们向酒店员工解释安息日的限制时，他们恭敬地点了点头，并告诉我们他们明白我们是基督复临安息日会信徒。我们本可以让世人知晓安息日的。

But we made the point of explaining that the Jewish prohibitions of doing work on the Sabbath are different. They relate to any creative work that leaves a lasting and material improvement the world, which is why even writing words with a pen are prohibited.

我们特意解释说，犹太人禁止在安息日做工是不同的。它们与任何创造性的工作有关，这些工作可以给世界带来持久的实质性改善，这就是为什么甚至禁止用笔写字。

It’s time that America begins to acknowledge the same. The world is obsessed and enthralled with America, which gives it a unique responsibility to promote uniquely American values for the benefit of the world.

现在是美国开始承认同样的时候了。世界痴迷于美国，这赋予了它独特的责任，即为了世界的利益而传播独特的美国价值观。

Whereas once that obsession with America was almost wholly positive – America as a harbinger of freedom and human dignity, whose greatest generation defeated Hitler – today, people are looking to unfairly criticize the US. They overlook American sacrifice in the Middle East to remove barbarous dictators like Saddam Hussein, stand up to Iran and support Ukraine against the brutality of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But for all that, everyone understands that America is still the greatest light of liberty the world has ever seen.

曾经，对美国的痴迷几乎是完全积极的——美国是自由和人类尊严的先驱，其最伟大的一代打败了希特勒——今天，人们开始寻求不公平地批评美国。他们忽视了美国在中东的牺牲，以推翻像萨达姆·侯赛因这样的野蛮独裁者，站出来反对伊朗，支持乌克兰反对俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的残暴行为。但尽管如此，每个人都明白，美国仍然是世界有史以来最伟大的自由之光。

It’s a responsibility we should take seriously. Let America never placate tyrannies like Iran or allow them to fund terrorists around the Middle East. Let America never turn a blind eye to the aggression of thugs like Putin, whose megalomania and violence threatens world peace.

这是我们应该认真对待的责任。让美国永远不要安抚像伊朗这样的暴政，也不要让它们资助中东周围的恐怖分子。让美国永远不要对普京等暴徒的侵略视而不见，他们的狂妄自大和暴力威胁着世界和平。

And let’s see America forever stand by allies like Israel, who are committed to the very same values, ideals and principles that Americans just recently reaffirmed on the Fourth of July: an unshakable belief that all of God’s children are equal all are born free, and all deserving of a life suffused with happiness.

让我们看到美国永远站在像以色列这样的盟友身边，他们致力于美国人最近在7月4日刚刚重申的相同的价值观、理想和原则：不可动摇的信念，即上帝的所有孩子都是平等的，所有人都生而自由，所有人都值得过上充满幸福的生活。

The writer, “America’s Rabbi” whom The Washington Post calls “the most famous Rabbi in America,” is the international best-selling author or 36 books, including most recently, Holocaust Holiday: One Family’s Descent into Genocide Memory Hell.

作者是什穆利·博特奇，“美国的拉比”，被《华盛顿邮报》称为“美国最着名的拉比”，是国际畅销书作家。其36本书，包括最近的《大屠杀假期：一个家庭的沦落到种族灭绝记忆地狱》。