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From: R. Kovacs
Subject: Registry concerns
Date: 16 Shevat 5781
Rav Halevi's distinction reminds me of something else my grandfather said.
He said: the Germans did not invent lists of Jews. They found them. Every country kept records, for taxes, for citizenship, for the military, for the churches. Jews were documented everywhere.
What was invented was the use. The lists existed innocently. The use was not innocent.
He would say: a knife is not a weapon until someone decides to cut. But some knives are shaped for cutting. And some lists are shaped for uses their creators did not intend.
I do not know if what we are building is such a list. I only know we should ask.
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