Today is Yom HaShoah, an international day of mourning for victims of the Holocaust. I have written often here on this subject. When I was a graduate student I compiled the oral history of an Auschwitz survivor, publishing it in the Los Angeles Times on Yom Hashoah 1977. In the 1990s, I visited Theresienstadt while leading a New York Jewish Federation mission to central Europe. In the 1930s, one of my grandmother’s brothers left this country disillusioned because, as he said in Yiddish, t’iz a g’nayvishe land (“it’s a land of thieves”). He later perished in Poland.
GIven all this, how can one justify the mockery that is made of the day by Israel and many who exploit it for political purposes? Israel has turned it into a national spectacle. Somber speeches are made. Lessons are offered and learned. But they are largely the wrong ones.
The Zionist ideology underpinning Israel is based on rejection of the Diaspora (known in Hebrew as zilzul ha’galut). The lesson the nation learns tomorrow is that the only thing important about the Holocaust is that it led to the creation of the State of Israel. The 6-million victims offer a moral (though a false one), that the only place a Jew is safe is Israel. That Jewish existence outside Israel is doomed. In fact, living as Jew in Israel is at least as dangerous, if not more so, than being one in the Diaspora.
If you dismiss this argument, you have only to look at how Holocaust survivors, who made aliyah to Israel in the hundreds of thousands after they survived the War, have been treated by the State historically. Yes, Israel accepted billions in reparations from Germany to expiate its guilt. And the State gladly accepted this lucre. But the nation has little use for actual survivors. It has left them to rot in squalor and poverty. Survivors are not real people, they are ciphers for a greater Zionist cause.
I was deeply disturbed during my visit to Theresienstadt to see Israeli flags draping every possible historical artifact there. As if Israel was the only possible answer to this horror. I’m also disgusted that the Polish government permits IAF F-16s to flyover the Auschwitz site, as if Israeli military might is the only proper response to this indelible historic suffering. Let’s not forget the prophet’s admonition: “Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.”
I’m deeply troubled by the parochialism of Jewish attitudes toward the Holocaust: it is a unique event in the history of the world. It is our tragedy. No one else’s. No one can plumb the depths of our suffering. And no one may question or doubt any act that we take as long as we invoke the Holocaust to justify it.
No, the only thing unique about the Holocaust is the number of dead and perhaps the methodical industrial organization of the killing. There have never been 6-million killed in any previous or subsequent genocide (yet). But that does not mean that there have not been other genocides or that there will not be genocides in future. Genocides are not unique to Jews. Tribes, religions and ethnic groups of all stripes have shared in such suffering throughout human history: the Tutsi of Rwanda, the Rohingya of Burma, Cambodia under Pol Pot, and finally the first modern genocide, of the Armenians, perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks (an event Israel refuses to officially recognize). The ancient Israelites even exterminated some of the tribes which occupied the land when they first entered it.
And now I will say the forbidden: yes, I can even imagine how the current State of Israel, as it slides rapidly into fascism and racial supremacism, could join the ranks of the genocidaires. We are not there yet. But in 1933, German Jews said they were not there yet, too. Anyone who argues that this would never be possible should take a close reading on the post I wrote about the Israeli state-employed rabbis who taught their future-IDF soldier-students that Hitler was right, that Jews are racially superior to Arabs, and worse. These are not outlier views in Israel. Not by any means.
Jewish communal leaders solemnly declare, “Never again,” a slogan first popularized in this country by Meir Kahane to justify his campaign of terror against first, the Soviet Union, and later against Blacks, Arabs and even leftist Jews. Shmuley Boteach repeats the phrase, adding a new twist by warning that it could happen again. But of course he means that it could happen to JEWS again. Because that’s all that interests him.
My basic objection to the mainstream Jewish approach to the Holocaust is that it separates us from the rest of humanity. We insist on being put up on a pedestal and our suffering recognized as being unparalleled in the history of humanity (or at least modernity). But if we put the Holocaust into the context of all the other genocides, we could unite with all those who’ve similarly suffered to ensure that this doesn’t happen to any human group ever again. Solidarity should trump singularity.
This is one of my many quarrels with the International Holocaust Remembrance protocol circulated around the world, after it was devised by two figures, one closely allied with the U.S. Israel Lobby and the other with what Norman Finkelstein would call the Holocaust industry. IHRA only recognizes the Holocaust in the context of any others in a peripheral fashion. And most unfortunately, it links the Holocaust directly to Israel, claiming falsely that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.
The truth is that just as Israel has no monopoly on Jewishness, and should never claim to speak on behalf of all Jewish people, it also has no monopoly on the Holocaust. Israel is not the ineluctable result of the Holocaust. Israel is only one of many responses to the Holocaust by world Jewry. All Jews, including those outside Israel have had to grapple with the meaning of this tragic historic event. That’s why we now have an academic field of genocide studies, and museums around the world (not just Yad Vashem) dedicated to the subject.
And we should not forget that Israel can get things very wrong in addressing the Holocaust. For example, Yad Vashem makes a fatal mistake in welcoming to its sacred sanctum some of the worst Holocaust deniers and brutal dictators in the world today. Duterte, Orban, Bolsonaro, etc. are bloody anti-Semites and Holocaust admirers. Yet the Israeli museum rolled out the red carpet for them. Why? Because it was politically expedient to do so in advancing the interests of the State.
This is precisely the danger of conflating such a profound historical tragedy that befell an entire people, with the political interests of a particular state. Israel is not the same as Judaism (as I repeat endlessly). Zionism is not the same as Judaism. Israel does not own all of Jewish experience, and certainly not the Holocaust.
[comment deleted: I do not permit the use of Kahanist slogans in this blog. If that’s your MO you’ll have to go elsewhere. Do this again and you will be banned.]
Regarding Israel’s Holocaust survivors, Richard says that Israel, “has left them to rot in squalor and poverty”.
I dispute that.
In a survey in 2015, it was found that of the roughly 189,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel, about 45,000 (that’s less than one-third) are living in poverty.
By contrast, in the two other major population centers for survivors – New York City and the countries of the former Soviet Union – the rates of destitution are even worse!
http://www.timesofisrael.com/500000-holocaust-survivors-live-in-poverty-says-us-diplomat/
I also question how well Richard can understand how Israeli people feel about the historical Holocaust, and how they feel about Holocaust survivors. After all, Richard hasn’t set foot in Israel in on over thirty years?
I’d ask you all to read this rather moving article showing how the Israeli Knesset marks Holocaust Memorial Day.
https:// www. jpost. com/Israel-News/Every-person-has-a-name-Knesset-reads-names-of-Holocaust-victims-588510
@ Eunice: Ah, so the fact that over 25% of the remaining Holocaust survivors live in squalor and poverty redeems Israeli neglect? And have you noticed that Yoav Gallant intended to evict Holocaust survivors from housing his ministry controls. And he only relented after he got bad PR? This is unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception when it comes to official disdain or disregard for Survivors.
As for the fate of survivors in the U.S. and Russia, that’s a red herring. Neither the U.S. nor the USSR has any special obligation to Holocaust survivors in the way Israel does, since its creation was fueled by survivors.
That’s a lie. When you make claims about my personal history you damn well better know what you’re talking about. Further, there are astrophysicists studying the sun who haven’t set foot on it. Does that mean they too can’t understand it? There are medievalists who never lived during the Middle Ages. They can’t understand the period or what happened during it? Don’t be stupid. Besides, this argument has been offered here numerous times. Try a new one for God’s sake!!
Do not ever post hasbara links from the JPost. It’s a shmatteh of the lowest sort.
My mother was an Auschwitz survivor. She lived in Romania, a short 3 hour flight from Israel. Her biggest regret that she wasn’t able to live in Israel, but 30 of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren do. When 2 Hungarians managed to escape from Auschwitz and returned to their towns to warn the people what was happening, they were driven out of the towns. No one wanted to hear the truth. Like today, the truth was obvious. The truth hurts. Only Israel will provide a refuge for the Jews when the anti Antisemitism in the United States and Europe begins to rage out of control. Yad Vashem is not only a memorial it is a warning not only to Jews but to all mankind. Never Again.
@ jewdy: Israel is no refuge for Diaspora Jews as today’s news of four Israeli dead proves. There is no “out of control anti Semitism” in either Europe or the U.S. THough there is out of control murderous racial hatred in Israel which has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian and Arab dead at the hands of Israel.
Do not ever use any Kahanist phrases in the blog post. Or you will be banned.
“the only thing unique about the Holocaust is the number of dead” – if that was true, the holocaust should not have been about the Jewish holocaust but the Russian one. They have lost many more people of the 60 million total death toll of the war, out of which the Jews take about 10%.
The genocides you mention are about territory control and go hand in hand with cleansing but the oppressor doesn’t care much about individuals who live somewhere else. The Nazis of the other hand, came with an ideology of eradicating the world of Jewish presence, at least in the long run.
@ Yoni Levy: You have no idea the meaning of the term “genocide.” The Russian dead, while horrific, was not genocide. It was a product of war. THough the Nazis did consider Slavs to be an inferior race, there was no systematic attempt to eradicate the “Slav race” as there was an attempt to eradicate the Jewish people.
Also, there are no gradations of genocide; or genocides that are better or worse than others because their motivations were different. There is only one standard of genocide and the Holocaust is not a unique genocide by any means.
“The ancient Israelites even exterminated some of the tribes which occupied the land when they first entered it” – I find it interesting you take the bible as a reliable history source about such facts. Do you actually believe in it so literally?
@Yoni Levy: if you can find any modern Moabites, Amalekites or Jebusites, then you can discount the Biblical narrative. Otherwise, I tend to accept an account written which does not flatter the writer or Israelite people. Not to mention there are independent historical and archaeological records which support elements of the Biblical narrative concerning these wars of extetmination .
A walk to sponsor refugees, that has been held for more than 15 years in the Netherlands, wanted to add camp Westerbork as one of its starting points. Camp Westerbork started out as a refugee camp for Jews who had fled Germany in the 1930s. After the German occupation it became the transit camp for Dutch Jews on their way “to the east”. After the war it was a refugee camp again, for refugees from Indonesia (mostly Moluccans who had served in the Dutch army land their families). Threats from right wing extremists and Jews caused the walk to be cancelled. The director of the memorial site of the camp stressed that they remember the Holocaust 356 days a year, but wanted to remember the other functions of the camp on this one day.
” if you can find any modern Moabites, Amalekites or Jebusites,”
Just as a matter of info the Hatam Sofer {17-18 century?} said he knew who was Amaleq but to do anything would bring untold grief to the Jewish people.
@Richard
“Neither the U.S. nor the USSR has any special obligation to Holocaust survivors in the way Israel does, since its creation was fueled by survivors ”
FYI.
Most of the impoverished holocaust survivors of which we are speaking, came from the former Soviet Union, and are relatively new arrivals to Israel. Most of these survivors are elderly, sick, and don’t speak Hebrew, and therefore, these survivors could not have worked as very productive citizens to help to raise themselves out of poverty.
So. These are not the original survivors who you claim helped fuel the creation of the State of Israel.
And yes, Israel could have done more for them.
https://brookdale.jdc.org.il/en/publication/holocaust-survivors-israel-population-estimates-demographic-health-social-characteristics-needs/
Excellent Richard…thank you.
“if you can find any modern Moabites, Amalekites or Jebusites, then you can discount the Biblical narrative” – Is this a joke? How do you even know they have ever existed? How do you know how they went off the history stage?
And if so, why won’t you accept the bible as a deed for the land? Seems to me like cherry-picking from the bible to support a specific narrative.
@Yoni Levy: because there is independent historical/archaeological evidence supporting the Biblical narrative. I said that in my comment to you. Didn’t you bother reading it? I hate sloppy hasbarists. You just make me repeat myself.
Richard – if you can direct me to such sources, it will appreciate it. You are the one demanding sources to claims. Wikipedia doesn’t offer such information. Moabites don’t belong in that list to begin with!
From what I know, most archeologists don’t believe the Israelites came out of Egypt but were groups who, at some point, united. The Bible is a collection of stories/myths that were put together by the SOFRIM. Many doubt the existence of Moses or even David, not to mention the fathers/mothers. I find it interesting you take earlier parts of the Bible literally.
@Richard
“Do not ever post hasbara links from the JPost. It’s a shmatteh of the lowest sort.”
https://twitter.com/richards1052/status/1126354104505311232
Sure.
@ Eunice: I post links to the Post when I document the many shameful hoaxes they’ve perpetrated. And of course the tweet you referred to above notes a Post report which is surely a hoax. I’m always happy to point out when sources like these which you admire perpetrate journalistic malpractice.
What journalistic malpractice?
The Post makes clear that the leaked documents may be a hoax.
@ Eunice: Why would any self-respecting media outlet publish anything that “may be a hoax?” The very definition of respectable, credible journalism is to vet material before publication and only publish what can be verified. To publish garbage admitting that it may be garbage is worse than malpractice. It’s almost criminal. Nice to know you’re pimping for gutter journalism. Careful, you’ll end up smelling awfully bad down there in the gutter with JPost!
@Richard
You just retweeted a patently bogus article titled,”1,000 Israeli Soldiers To Arrive in Honduras to Train Troops, Police on Border”, less than a day after you called Jerusalem Post ‘garbage’ for publishing what they admit ,may be a hoax.
Wow.
@ Eunice:
The article is “patently bogus?” Then you can offer evidence to support this? If so, please do. I like to be able to debunk stories when I find they’re false. But you haven’t offered anything but your own opinion. Which, I’m afraid, isn’t worth much.
As for RTing it…yes, that’s right. But I have not written a post about it. A post is the equivalent of a media report. I would not write a blog post about this because, as I wrote earlier, I only publish material I can confirm or verify.
A tweet is the equivalent of a few people shooting the breeze, having a cup of coffee, sharing gossip. Maybe the tweet is important. Maybe it isn’t. There is a difference between a news report and a tweet. Apparently, you don’t understand that. Twitter is not a newspaper, not even a blog. It’s a social media platform.
You also don’t seem aware that often journalists will use social media to try to vet stories. To learn if there is further support for them. To learn if they can rebut them as false. That’s precisely what I did.
You are done in this thread. Do not publish again here. You are sorely trying my patience. If I were you I’d buy that El Al ticket. Your plane is departing imminently for Ben Gurion…