International Holocaust Rememberance Day

Monday, January 27, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. January 27, 1945, was the day that the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. 60 years later, in 2005, the United Nations passed a resolution for an annual commemoration.

60 years. 60 years for a formal, international recognition of the systematic slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its associates.

For a Shoah memorial day, Israel, In 1951, initially considered the date on which the Warsaw ghetto uprising had begun — 19 April 1943; 13 NIsan, erev Pesach. (It took nearly a month for the Germans to quash the insurrection and liquidate the ghetto.)

We may chuckle about Israel squeezing such a momentous occasion between setting the seder table and finishing the matza balls. However, wiser heads prevailed and a post-Pesach date was chosen, midway between the end of Pesach and Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day: 27 Nisan.

Our local community commemoration has featured survivors drawn from an understandably dwindling population; more recently, focus has been shifting to the children of those survivors. We learn a lot from their testimonies, including that trauma — and resistance or resilience — can be part of the legacy passed from parent to child.

I see one major difference between the Knesset choice of date and that of the United Nations. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army saved the remnant left at Auschwitz. Ironic, no? The soldiers of Stalin — Stalin, who fomented pogroms, murdered Jewish (and other) writers, politicians and artists, and compelled conscription, exile and banishment of Russian Jews — Stalin’s army liberated what became the poster-place of the extermination of Jews.

I’m not an ingrate; so many many soldiers and civilians were killed in the course of defeating the Nazi machine and its collaborators. We must recognize their sacrifices and express appreciation.

However, on January 27, we Jews are invited to commemorate the slaughter of one-third of our people on a day tied to Jews being liberated by others. (This from the Press of Atlantic City: “The Sarah and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University partnered with the Casino Association of New Jersey on Monday to light up Atlantic City yellow to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” If nothing else, it got the day in front of some people who otherwise would not have known.)

To me, January 27 heightens the feeling and perception of Jewish helplessness and passivity that can pervade our thinking about the Shoah. Our people engaged in a wide range of efforts, larger and smaller, against their oppressors; there was much resistance of the spirit.

As the primary target of the obsessed German death machine, shouldn’t WE determine THE DATE for Shoah remembrance? It feels to me that we have been denied agency, denied what should be our prerogative to determine the day of memorial for OUR PEOPLE!

Well, I guess you could step back and say that this is exactly what we got: 27 Nisan is ours for us. The rest of the world, with or without Jews, has 27 January. Perhaps the thinking, if it merits that word, was that should the world find itself without Jews (chas v’shalom), there will still be a day of commemoration on the Gregorian calendar. Thoughts and prayers.

It is also hard to miss the hypocrisy or willful ignorance of those who call Israel genocidal. The loudest voices among them have no qualms about accusing Israel (i.e., Jews) while shouting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Free of what, for what? Free of Jews. The rest is commentary.

We KNOW GENOCIDE, damn it! and we recognize propaganda for what it is!

Here’s a though experiment: One morning, the world wakes up and POOF! all Jews have left the land of Israel. None remains. I expect that, in no time, deadly turf battles will erupt — Hamas against Hezbolla against Fattah against Islamic Jihad against, maybe, Egypt, Jordan or others vying for a piece of the pie. And I bet that those deadly battles will hold the attention of the western media only for a few days, even if, say, Egypt carpet bombs Gaza to get rid of that sore spot on its border.

Lest we sink into a swamp of gloom, let’s look at the current state of American governance… Just kidding!

Israel is strong in many ways. We’ve seen the resolve of Israelis in the faces of the recently-freed hostages. The gauntlet through which the first group had to pass was terrifying to watch and surely terrorizing to experience. I think it highly unlikely that Hamas will again showcase in front of media cameras the humans they release from captivity: smiling young women raising their hands with victory signs doesn’t make for effective terror and fear-mongering.

I hope that the majority of Israelis would still prefer neighbors who eschew genocidal goals. My brain is challenged by the idea of a single state for Arabs and Jews; over time, it cannot bode well for the Jews. And a two-state solution seems to have faded from consideration … for now.

Moreover, the internecine strife among Israelis may prove to be harder to manage than threats from without, what with right and left religious extremists religious moderates (there ARE Masorti/Conservative and progressive/Reform Israelis!) even right and left devout atheists…

Speaking of devout atheists, Dr Einat Wilf is an avowed (perhaps) card-carrying member of that majority denomination of Israelis. I recommend her videos on Youtube: she is informed, opinionated, and clear about the state of affairs between Israel and its enemies.

One of her tenets is an update of Golda Meir’s famous aphorism: Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate ours. Wilf sets that sentiment against the background of what she terms “Palestinianism”: When the Arabs give up the idea of living only for the death of Jewish sovereignty, there might be a chance for peace.

To that end, Wilf asserts, there must be a total defeat of at least some of Israel’s enemies, e.g., Hamas. Half measures, cease-fires, won’t do it.

Case in point: how Hamas fighters are being shown in the media. It’s hard to know how many fighters there are, but they seem to be well-equipped with uniforms from headbands/balaclavas/sunglasses to — I’m sure — matching “Death-to-Israel!” socks. Don’t forget the shiny new-looking pickup trucks!

Meanwhile, Gazan civilians are hauling their remaining possessions by hand or cart from place to place. Oh, and the fighters — and the boisterous crowds around them — sure don’t seem to be malnourished, unlike what we’re told about the rest of Gaza, which has been on the verge of famine since….October 8, 2023?

Okay. I’ve gotten that off my chest.

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, our daughter Hannah is settling into her work at Israel Experience. She manages logistics —hotels, meals, staffing, etc. — for various teen trips, training missions, and other programs in Israel or — when the military climate demands — in Europe. And she’s busy, which is a good sign.

Elsewhere in Israel, the more liberal streams of Judaism have a lot to offer the majority of Israelis who are “secular,” even to those devout atheists. We feel we have a historically legitimate understanding of our faith and practices that doesn’t lock us into a power hierarchy of paternalism and extremist politics.

“How does that relate to me?” you may ask. The World Zionist Organization controls a very large sum of money that is distributed to a wide variety of organizations in Israel. How much each group gets is based on the number of worldwide votes cast on its behalf. Voting takes place every 5 years. Invest a few minutes and a few bucks to voting for Mercaz / Masorti Olami. It can mean a whole lot of shekels for them! (Take home a postcard, register and vote!)

Wait! There’s more! Shirat Hayam’s rescheduled Israel trip is October 26 to November 6. A new itinerary will be out this coming week. Come with us to learn, to support, to show up even if — or especially when — times are challenging. Most of all, come to experience one of the most remarkable enterprises in Jewish history. There’s nowhere else like it!

Shabbat shalom!