Holocaust Remembrance

Samuel Freedman has written an interesting piece in the Jerusalem Post in which he claims that the Jewish insistence on world-wide Holocaust remembrance is detrimental to the Jewish image. Holocaust terminology has become so common that it is now being used against Israel. In the recent Gaza conflict Israel was compared to the Nazis and the Durban anti-racism conference used this terminology as well.

What is the point of Holocaust remembrance? There are two answers to this question. The first one is that the descendants of those who perpetrated the crime and those who stood by need to learn and understand the Holocaust so that they will not repeat it. The second aspect of Holocaust remembrance relates to the Jews: we need to prevent the Holocaust from happening again by supporting a strong and secure Israel as well as safe environments for Jews in the Diaspora.

When Holocaust remembrance is used as the weapon of anti-Semites to denigrate the Jewish people it is not serving its purpose and this is what makes it so dangerous. As Freedman says,

“It is using a piece of our past to disenfranchise us in the present and imperil us in the future.“

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