The Miracle of Jewish Survival: 12 Powerful Quotes That Defy History

Before presenting one of the central passages of the Passover Haggadah each year, we recite these timeless words composed by the Sages: "And it is this that has stood by our fathers and by us: for not only one has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us, and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand."

It is remarkable how relevant these words remain in every generation. But what exactly is the "it" that has sustained us throughout history?

According to the Haggadah, it refers to God's covenant with Abraham at the Covenant Between the Pieces (Brit Bein HaBetarim) — His promise that although the Jewish people would endure exile, persecution, and suffering, He would ultimately preserve and redeem them.

The very existence of the Jewish people, against every historical and statistical expectation, bears witness not only to the world but also to ourselves that God continues to watch over His people with extraordinary providence.

Throughout history, philosophers, historians, statesmen, and writers have marveled at this unparalleled phenomenon. Following are some of their most striking observations.

1. Nikolai Berdyaev (Russian philosopher)

"According to the materialistic and positivist criteria, this nation should long ago have disappeared. Its survival is a mysterious and extraordinary phenomenon, demonstrating that the life of this nation is governed by an ancient decree."

2. Jean-Paul Sartre (French philosopher)

"I cannot judge the Jewish people by the ordinary laws of human history. The Jewish people are something beyond time."

3. George Friedman (American geopolitical analyst)

"The Jewish people possess a history unlike that of any other nation. I once wrote that the Jews are an accident of history—something that does not conform to the normal rules of historical development."

4. Blaise Pascal (French philosopher and mathematician)

"It is astonishing to see the Jewish people survive through so many centuries while constantly subjected to suffering... Their endurance, despite their afflictions, is something that defies explanation."

5. Arnold Toynbee (One of the twentieth century's foremost historians)

"The preservation of a nation's identity without political independence, without a common spoken language, scattered across the globe, while enduring relentless persecution, is such an irrational phenomenon that every historian stands before it in amazement."

6. David Ben-Gurion

"Any Jew who does not believe in miracles is not a realist."

7. Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish-American Jewish author)

"The Jews are such an extraordinary case in human history that if it had not actually happened, we would never believe it possible."

8. Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)

"What is a Jew? Let us examine this remarkable being whom every ruler and every nation has oppressed, persecuted, exiled, trampled, burned, and slaughtered—yet who continues to live despite it all.

What is a Jew, who has never been persuaded by all the temptations offered by his persecutors to abandon his faith and the religion of his fathers?

The Jew is the symbol of eternity. Neither massacre nor torture, neither fire nor the sword of the Inquisition has been able to destroy him. He was the first to proclaim the word of God and has preserved it for all humanity.

Such a people can never disappear. The Jew is eternal; he is the embodiment of eternity."

9. Mark Twain

"The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians rose, filled the earth with splendor, then faded away. The Greeks and Romans followed, made a mighty noise, and vanished. Other peoples emerged, carried their torch for a time, and then disappeared.

The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and remains today what he has always been. He shows no signs of decay, no weakness of old age, no diminishing vitality."

10. Mark Twain

"All things are mortal except the Jew. All other forces pass away, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

11. Herman Wouk (American author)

"This people has survived an astonishing succession of disasters that, by all natural expectations, should have destroyed it. Such enduring survival in defiance of historical logic is perhaps the greatest wonder of all."

12. François-René de Chateaubriand (French writer, statesman, and diplomat)

"The Persians, Greeks, and Romans have disappeared from the earth, yet a small nation that existed before those great empires still survives in the purity of its identity amid the ruins of its homeland. If there is anything among the nations that bears the unmistakable mark of a miracle, it is this."

A Living Testimony

The continued existence of the Jewish people, despite overwhelming historical odds and countless attempts to eradicate them, stands as one of many compelling testimonies to the unique destiny of the Jewish nation. Against every statistical expectation and every conventional law of history, the Jewish people have endured.

We conclude with the moving words of the late Israeli author and Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld, from his book And the Rage Is Not Yet Quieted:

"The Jews forgot that they are children of kings... Only the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai, and only within them remain the echoes of the Divine voice, the thunder and lightning of revelation. Sadly, many have forgotten this. But the Bible has not forgotten. Nor should we dismiss these witnesses who have forgotten their own identity. One day they will remember who they are and become what they were always meant to be."