The Holocaust is also sometimes referred to as “the Shoah,” the Hebrew word for “catastrophe.” It affected nearly all of Europe’s Jewish population, which in 1933 numbered 9 million people. 

When they came to power in Germany, the Nazis did not immediately start to carry out mass murder. However, they quickly began using the government to target and exclude Jews from German society. The regime persecuted other groups because of politics, ideology, or behavior. The Nazis claimed that Roma, people with disabilities, some Slavic peoples (especially Poles and Russians), and Black people were biologically inferior. Other persecuted groups included Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay men, and people the Nazis called “asocials” and “professional criminals.” 

MAY 7, 1919: Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles ending World War I is presented to Germany. Among its provisions, the treaty forces Germany to accept responsibility for the war and commit to enormous reparation payments — a humiliation seen as setting the stage for the rise of Adolf Hitler and his promise to restore German greatness.

FEBRUARY 27, 1925: Hitler Reformulates Nazi Party

Hitler declares the reformulation of the Nazi Party and installs himself as leader in a declaration at the Munich beer hall where he led an aborted coup against the German government in 1923.

JANUARY 30, 1933: Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany

The Nazis assume control of Germany with Hitler’s appointment as chancellor.
FROM THE JTA ARCHIVE (1933): Hitler Sworn in as German Chancellor 

FEBRUARY 28, 1933: Reichstag Fire and Aftermath

A day after a fire in the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, German President Paul Von Hindenburg approves the Reichstag Fire Decree, an emergency decree that suspends individual rights and due process of law.
THE JTA ARCHIVE (1933): Police Aided By Nazis Search Central Union Premises After Reichstag Fire

MARCH 22, 1933: First Concentration Camp Established

The SS, a Nazi paramilitary group, establishes the first concentration camp to incarcerate political prisoners near the town of Dachau.
THE JTA ARCHIVE (1933): Jewish Lawyer Tortured by Nazis in Concentration Camp 

APRIL 1, 1933: Nazis Stage Boycott of Jewish Businesses

Nazi leadership stages an economic boycott targeting Jewish-owned businesses and the offices of Jewish professionals.
JTA ARCHIVE (1933): Nazi Communique Announces Boycott of Jewish Businesses Throughout Country

SEPTEMBER 15, 1935: Nuremberg Laws

The German parliament (Reichstag) passes the Nuremberg Laws, institutionalizing many of the Nazis’ racial theories and providing the legal grounds for the persecution of Jews in Germany.
Read the full text here.

AUGUST 1, 1936: Opening of Berlin Olympics

The Summer Olympic Games open in Berlin, providing the Nazi government with a major propaganda success by enabling it to present itself as a respectable member of the international community.

MARCH 11, 1938: Germany Annexes Austria

Germany invades Austria and incorporates it into the German Reich, provoking a wave of street violence against Jews in Vienna.
JTA ARCHIVE (1938): Anschluss Proclaimed in Plebiscite

SEPTEMBER 29, 1938: The Munich Agreement

The Munich agreement is signed, ceding the Sudetenland, a region in Czechoslovakia with a large ethnic German population, to Germany and prompting British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to declare the achievement of “peace for our time.”
JTA ARCHIVE (1938): Munich Pact Abandons Minorities to Nazi Terror

NOVEMBER 9, 1938: Kristallnacht

A night of violent anti-Jewish pogroms known as Kristallnacht results in the destruction of hundreds of synagogues, the looting of thousands of Jewish-owned businesses and the deaths of nearly 100 Jews. The event, which was followed by the promulgation of dozens of anti-Jewish laws, is considered a turning point in the persecution of German Jewry.
JTA ARCHIVE: 25,000 Jews Under Arrest in Wake of Worst Pogrom in Modern German History, 4 Dead

DECEMBER 2, 1938: Kindertransports Begin

The first Kindertransport, a program for bringing child refugees out of Nazi Germany, arrives in Great Britain, bringing some 200 Jewish children from a Berlin orphanage destroyed on Kristallnacht. Thousands of refugee children would be brought to England aboard such transports between 1938 and 1940.
JTA ARCHIVE (1999): Former Kindertransport Refugees Gather for a Last Full-Scale Reunion

MAY 13, 1939: Departure of the St. Louis

The ocean liner St. Louis departs Hamburg, Germany and heads toward Cuba carrying 900 passengers, nearly all of them Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. The boat is denied entry to Cuba and later the United States, forcing it to return to Europe. Some were taken in by the United Kingdom, while the others were allowed into Western European countries that would later be occupied by the Nazis. Two hundred and fifty-four of the passengers would eventually be murdered in the Holocaust.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1939: Germany Invades Poland

Germany invades Poland, setting off World War II. Britain and France responded with a declaration of war two days later.

May 1940: Germany Invades France

Germany begins its invasion of France, the Netherlands and Belgium. The Netherlands and Belgium surrender in May, and Paris is occupied on June 14.  In a June 22 armistice agreement, Germany is given control of northern France, while the collaborationist French Vichy government controls the south.
JTA ARCHIVE (1940): Jews Fleeing France as Hitler Dictates Armistice Terms

MAY 20, 1940: Auschwitz Established

Germany establishes the Auschwitz concentration camp, the largest facility of its kind built by the Nazis, about 43 miles west of Krakow, Poland.

NOVEMBER 15, 1940: Warsaw Jews Confined to Ghetto

German authorities order the Warsaw ghetto sealed. It is the largest ghetto in both area and population, confining more than 350,000 Jews (about 30 percent of the city’s population) in an area of about 1.3 square miles.

JUNE 22, 1941: Germany Invades the USSR

Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in “Operation Barbarossa.” German mobile units of Security Police and SD (Nazi intelligence) officials, called Einsatzgruppen, identify, round up and murder Jews, carrying out mass shootings during the last week of June 1941.

JTA ARCHIVE (1941): 500,000 Jews in Path of Nazi Forces Invading Russia
JTA ARCHIVE (1941): Nazis Launch Radio Drive, Urge Russian Troops to Turn Bayonets on Jews

SEPTEMBER 1, 1941: Jews Forced to Wear Yellow Stars of David

All Jews over the age of six residing in territories under German control are required to wear a yellow Star of David with the word Jew inscribed within it on their outer clothing.

JTA ARCHIVE (1941): Jews in Reich Start New Year by Wearing Yellow Stars

DECE 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Attacked, US Enters World War II

Japan launches a surprise attack on the United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to enter World War II.

JTA ARCHIVE (1941): Hebrew U President Judah L. Magnes Cables FDR Day After Pearl Harbor to Offer Service

JAN. 20, 1942: “Final Solution” Planned at Wannsee

The Wannsee Conference convenes in a villa outside Berlin. Plans to coordinate a “final solution” to the Jewish question are presented to leading German and Nazi officials.

July 23, 1942: Nazis Begin Gassing Operations at Treblinka

Some 925,000 Jews and an unknown number of Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners would be murdered there.
JTA ARCHIVE (1943): Nazis Suffocate Jews in Groups of 500 in Special Steam Chambers

APRIL 19, 1943: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Begins

For nearly a month, small groups of Jews fought the larger and better armed German forces before finally being defeated.
JTA ARCHIVE (April 30, 1943): Jews in Warsaw Ghetto Ask for Food and Arms to Continue Resistance
JTA ARCHIVE (May 16, 1943): Nazis Burn Down 200 Houses in Warsaw Ghetto, Execute Jewish Hostages

September 20, 1943: Thousands of Danish Jews Begin Escape to Sweden

With help from resistance fighters and ordinary citizens, some 7,200 Danish Jews began their escape to neutral Sweden.
JTA ARCHIVE (1943): Fishermen Establish Regular Ferry Service for Refugees Between Denmark and Sweden

MARCH 19, 1944: Germany Occupies Hungary

Germany occupies Hungary. Less than two months later, the deportation of 440,000 Hungarian Jews, mostly to Auschwitz, begins.
JTA ARCHIVE (1944): Jewish Shops in Budapest Looted, Jews Flee Homes, Seek Escape from Hungary

OCTOBER 7, 1944: Prisoners at Auschwitz Rebel

Jews arriving at Auschwitz in 1944. (German National Archive/Wikimedia Commons)Prisoners at Auschwitz rebel and the Germans crush the uprising, killing nearly 250 prisoners during the fighting.

January 27, 1945: Soviets Liberate Auschwitz

With Soviet forces advancing, Germany begins, on Jan. 17, the final evacuation of Auschwitz, marching nearly 60,000 west toward Germany in what became known as “death marches.” Anyone who fell behind or could not continue was shot. Ten days later, Soviet forces entered the camp and liberated the remaining 7,000 prisoners.

APRIL 30, 1945: Hitler Commits Suicide

With Soviet forces nearing his command bunker in central Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
JTA ARCHIVE (1945): Moscow Jews Rejoice at News of Hitler’s Death

MAY 7, 1945: Germany Surrenders

Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.  armed forces surrender unconditionally in the west. Victory in Europe, V-E Day, is proclaimed the next day.
JTA ARCHIVE (1945): German Refugee Captain Acts as Interpreter as Nazis in Italy Surrender

NOVEMBER 20, 1945: Nazi Leaders Charged with Crimes Against Humanity

An international tribunal in Nuremberg charges 21 Nazi leaders with crimes against humanity. Twelve Nazis would eventually be sentenced to death.

JTA ARCHIVE: Leaders Nervous as Allied Prosecutors at Nuremberg Trial List Crimes Against Jews

JULY 4, 1946: At Least 42 Jews Murdered in Pogrom in Poland

A mob of Polish soldiers, police officers and civilians murder at least 42 Jews and injure over 40 in the Polish town of Kielce, an event that convinces many Holocaust survivors that they have no future in Poland and must emigrate to Palestine or elsewhere.

DECEMBER 15, 1961: Israeli Court Convicts Nazi War Criminal Adolf Eichmann

An Israeli court convicts Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, following a highly publicized trial. Eichmann is executed on June 15, 1962.

JTA ARCHIVE (1961): Eichmann Found Guilty, Reading of Judgment to Conclude Tomorrow

Adapted with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The post A Timeline of the Holocaust appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

When the 27th of Nisan falls on a Friday or Sunday, Yom Hashoah is shifted a day to avoid conflicting with Shabbat. (The Hebrew calendar is fixed so that the 27th never falls on Shabbat itself.)

The date was selected by the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on April 12, 1951. The full name became formal in a law that was enacted by the Knesset on August 19, 1953. Although the date was established by the Israeli government, it has become a day commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide.

In the early 1950s, education about the Holocaust emphasized the suffering inflicted on millions of European Jews by the Nazis. Surveys conducted in the late 1950s indicated that young Israelis did not sympathize with the victims of the Holocaust, since they believed that European Jews were “led like sheep for slaughter.” The Israeli educational curriculum began to shift the emphasis to documenting how Jews resisted their Nazi tormentors through “passive resistance”—retaining their human dignity in the most unbearable conditions—and by “active resistance,” fighting the Nazis in the ghettos and joining underground partisans who battled the Third Reich in its occupied countries.

The Siren

Since the early 1960s, the sound of a siren on Yom Hashoah stops traffic and pedestrians throughout the State of Israel for two minutes of silent devotion. The siren blows at sundown as the holiday begins and once again at 11 a.m. the following morning. All radio and television programs during this day are connected in one way or another with the Jewish destiny in World War II, including personal interviews with survivors. Even the musical programs are adapted to the atmosphere of Yom Hashoah. There is no public entertainment on Yom Hashoah, as theaters, cinemas, pubs, and other public venues are closed throughout Israel.

Some Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox rabbis have never endorsed this memorial day, nor have they formally rejected it. There is no change in the daily religious services in Orthodox synagogues on Yom Hashoah. The Orthodox Rabbinate of Israel attempted to promote the Tenth of Tevet—a traditional fast day commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem in ancient times—as the “General Kaddish Day” in which Jews should recite the memorial prayer and light candles in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust. Several ultra-Orthodox rabbis have recommended adding piyyutim (religious poems) that were written by contemporary rabbis to the liturgy of Tisha B’Av and many communities follow this custom.

Jews in North America observe Yom Hashoah within the synagogue as well as in the broader Jewish community. Commemorations range from synagogue services to communal vigils and educational programs. A few congregations find it more practical to hold commemorative ceremonies on the Sunday closest to Yom Hashoah. Many Yom Hashoah programs feature a talk by a Holocaust survivor, recitation of appropriate songs and readings, or viewing of a Holocaust-themed film. Some communities choose to emphasize the depth of loss that Jews experienced in the Holocaust by reading the names of Holocaust victims one after another — dramatizing the unfathomable notion of six million deaths. Many Jewish schools also hold Holocaust-related educational programs on or around Yom Hashoah.

New Rituals

Rituals associated with Yom Hashoah are still being created and vary widely among synagogues. Attempts have also been made to observe this memorial day at home. One suggestion is that every Jewish home should light a yahrzeit (memorial) candle on this day

There have been numerous attempts to compose special liturgy (text and music) for Yom Hashoah. In 1988 the Reform movement published Six Days of Destruction. This book, co-authored by Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Albert Friedlander, was meant to be viewed as a “sixth scroll,” a modern addition to the five scrolls that are read on specific holidays. Six narratives from Holocaust survivors are juxtaposed to the six days of creation found in Genesis.

One of the most recent achievements is Megillat Hashoah (The Holocaust Scroll) created by the Conservative movement as a joint project of rabbis and lay leaders in Canada, the U.S., and Israel. This Holocaust scroll contains personal recollections of Holocaust survivors and is written in biblical style. It was composed under the direction of Avigdor Shinan, a professor at Hebrew University.

While Yom Hashoah rituals are still in flux there is no question that this day holds great meaning for Jews worldwide.  The overwhelming theme that runs through all observances is the importance of remembering — recalling the victims of this catastrophe, and insuring that such a tragedy never happen again.

The Shoah (Holocaust) posed an enormous challenge to Judaism and raised many questions: Can one be a believing Jew after the Holocaust?  Where was God? How can one have faith in humanity?  Facing this recent event in history, does it really matter if one practices Judaism?

Jewish theologians and laity have struggled with these questions for decades.  The very fact that Jews still identify Jewishly, practice their religion — and have embraced the observance of Yom Hashoah — answers some of the questions raised by the Holocaust.

The post Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Memorial Day appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

To read contemporary news accounts of the Holocaust and other Jewish events from 1917 on, search the JTA Archive. 

Dismantling Germany’s Democracy

Once in power, Hitler moved quickly to end German democracy. He convinced his cabinet to invoke emergency clauses of the constitution that permitted the suspension of individual freedoms of press, speech, and assembly. Special security forces — the Gestapo, the Storm Troopers (SA), and the SS — murdered or arrested leaders of opposition political parties (Communists, socialists, and liberals). The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 — forced through the Reichstag already purged of many political opponents –gave dictatorial powers to Hitler.

READ: Jewish Reactions to the Enabling Act (March 24, 1933)

Also in 1933, the Nazis began to put into practice their racial ideology. The Nazis believed that the Germans were “racially superior” and that there was a struggle for survival between them and inferior races. They saw Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and the handicapped as a serious biological threat to the purity of the “German (Aryan) Race,” what they called the master race.

Jews, who numbered about 525,000 in Germany (less than one percent of the total population in 1933) were the principal target of Nazi hatred. The Nazis identified Jews as a race and defined this race as “inferior.” They also spewed hate-mongering propaganda that unfairly blamed Jews for Germany’s economic depression and the country’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918).

Nuremberg Laws, Property Seizures and Kristallnacht

In 1933, new German laws forced Jews out of their civil service jobs, university and law court positions, and other areas of public life. In April 1933, laws proclaimed at Nuremberg made Jews second-class citizens. These Nuremberg Laws defined Jews, not by their religion or by how they wanted to identify themselves, but by the religious affiliation of their grandparents. Between 1937 and 1939, new anti-Jewish regulations segregated Jews further and made daily life very difficult for them. Jews could not attend public schools; go to theaters, cinema, or vacation resorts; or reside or even walk in certain sections of German cities.

Also between 1937 and 1939, Jews increasingly were forced from Germany’s economic life. The Nazis either seized Jewish businesses and properties outright or forced Jews to sell them at bargain prices. In November 1938, the Nazis organized a riot (pogrom), known as Kristallnacht (the “Night of Broken Glass”). This attack against German and Austrian Jews included the physical destruction of synagogues and Jewish-owned stores, the arrest of Jewish men, the vandalization of homes, and the murder of individuals.

Non-Jewish Targets of Persecution

Although Jews were the main target of Nazi hatred, the Nazis persecuted other groups they viewed as racially or genetically “inferior.” Nazi racial ideology was buttressed by scientists who advocated “selective breeding” (eugenics) to “improve” the human race. Laws passed between 1933 and 1935 aimed to reduce the future number of genetic “inferiors” through involuntary sterilization programs: 320,000 to 350,000 individuals judged physically or mentally handicapped were subjected to surgical or radiation procedures so they could not have children. Supporters of sterilization also argued that the handicapped burdened the community with the costs of their care. Many of Germany’s 30,000 Roma (Gypsies) were also eventually sterilized and prohibited, along with Blacks, from intermarrying with Germans. About 500 children of mixed African-German backgrounds were also sterilized. New laws combined traditional prejudices with the racism of the Nazis, which defined Roma by “race” and as “criminal and asocial.”

Another consequence of Hitler’s ruthless dictatorship in the 1930s was the arrest of political opponents and trade unionists and others whom the Nazis labeled “undesirables” and “enemies of the state.” Some 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals were imprisoned in concentration camps; under the 1935 Nazi-revised criminal code, the mere denunciation of a man as “homosexual” could result in arrest, trial, and conviction. Jehovah’s Witnesses, who numbered at least 25,000 in Germany, were banned as an organization as early as April 1933, because the beliefs of this religious group prohibited them from swearing any oath to the state or serving in the German military. Their literature was confiscated, and they lost their jobs, unemployment benefits, pensions, and all social welfare benefits. Many Witnesses were sent to prisons and concentration camps in Nazi Germany, and their children were sent to juvenile detention homes and orphanages.

Refugees With No Place to Go

Between 1933 and 1936, thousand of people, mostly political prisoners, were imprisoned in concentrations camps, while several thousand German Roma were confined in special municipal camps. The first systematic round-up of German and Austrian Jews occurred after Kristallnacht, when approximately 30,000 Jewish men were deported to Dachau and other concentration camps, and several hundred Jewish women were sent to local jails. The wave of arrests in 1938 also included several thousand German and Austrian Roma.

Between 1933 and 1939, about half of the German-Jewish population and more than two-thirds of Austrian Jews (1938-1939) fled Nazi persecution. They emigrated mainly to the United States, Palestine, elsewhere in Europe (where many would be later trapped by Nazi conquests during the war), Latin America, and Japanese-occupied Shanghai (which required no visas for entry). Jews who remained under Nazi rule were either unwilling to uproot themselves or unable to obtain visas, sponsors in host countries, or funds for emigration. Most foreign countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and France, were unwilling to admit very large numbers of refugees.

Reprinted courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The post Nazi Germany 1933-1939: Early Stages of Persecution appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Yom HaShoah, 27th of Nisan (April or May)

Yom HaShoah, whose full name is Yom HaShoah V’HaGevurah, meaning the Day of the Holocaust and Heroism, is one of the more recent holidays added to the Jewish calendar. In many Jewish communities around the world, Yom HaShoah has become the primary Holocaust memorial day. 

The Knesset, or Israeli parliament, passed the resolution creating Yom HaShoah in 1951. The 27^th of Nisan was chosen because it loosely corresponded to the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on Erev Passover, the 14^th of Nisan. However, because observing Yom HaShoah on that day would interfere with the preparations for Passover, it was not seriously considered as a potential national memorial day. 

Many customs have become associated with the observance of Yom HaShoah in Israel. A two minute siren is heard twice during the day. Various ceremonies are held by schools and youth groups, and there is state ceremony at Yad VaShem, the Israeli Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Other rituals include hearing testimony from survivors, lighting memorial (yahrzeit) candles, reading the names of the deceased and wearing white. 

Not all Jewish communities in Israel observe Yom HaShoah. Some Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities do not mark Yom HaShoah in a significant way. This is in part because these communities do not recognize or condone the secular Zionist state that established the day, and also because there are more more traditional days for mourning (Tisha B’Av, for example) and ways to mourn (standing for a moment of silence, for instance, has no prior precedent in Jewish tradition). In addition, the month of Nisan, when the date occurs, is considered a month of happiness, not a time of mourning.  

Since being added to the Jewish calendar in Israel, however, many Jewish communities across and beyond the denominational spectrum and around the world have started marking Yom HaShoah. Their observances look increasingly like Israeli observances. In North America, most synagogues and Jewish groups offer programming and events for Yom HaShoah which may include lighting yahrzeit candles and reading lists of names of victims.

Novemberpogrom/Kristallnacht, November 9th

Another date connected to Holocaust commemoration is the 9^th of November. Known primarily as the Novemberpogrom (November Pogrom) in the German-speaking world, those within the English-speaking world typically know it as Kristallnacht: Night of the Broken Glass. 

On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazi leadership as well as civilians attacked synagogues and Jewish institutional buildings, as well as businesses and even private property across what is today Germany and Austria. Some 30,000 Jewish men were brought to concentration camps, in what is widely understood to be the first mass imprisonment of Jews in the camp system. 

The anniversary of the November Pogrom has become another Holocaust memorial day, though not as universally observed as Yom HaShoah. In Germany and Austria, both non-Jewish and Jewish ceremonies and events mark this date. These ceremonies often feature commemoration wreaths, Jewish prayers honoring the dead such as Mourners’ Kaddish or El Maleh Rahamim and survivors sharing their experiences (or the reading of eye-witness testimonies). 

Outside of Germany and Austria, the 9^th of November is primarily observed by those whose families fled Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Austria. Many of these descendants live in North America or Israel. Customs include lighting a yahrzeit candle and sharing stories of the family members who lived through the November Pogrom. Some synagogues, particularly those founded by Yekkes, or German Jews, will host events or lectures commemorating the destruction and impact of the November Pogrom.

Tisha B’Av, 9th of Av (Falls in July/August)

Tisha B’Av (literally: Ninth of Av) commemorates the destruction of the First Temple (586 BCE) and the Second Temple (70 CE) in Jerusalem. But even since talmudic times, it has been an occasion to mourn other tragedies that have befallen the Jews, like the Bar Kochba Revolt and the Crusades. In many cases, these tragedies are also ascribed to the Ninth of Av. Additionally, some tragedies added to the Ninth of Av didn’t occur on the 9th itself, but in the days surrounding it. 

The most recent tragedy that has joined the events remembered on this day is the Holocaust. One calendar date used to connect the Ninth of Av to the Holocaust is the start of World War I on July 28, 1914 (which was, in that year, the 5th of Av). According to this understanding, World War I led to World War II and the Holocaust.

Tisha B’Av is one of Judaism’s two major fast days, the other being Yom Kippur. The book of Lamentations, or Eicha, is read in synagogues and sections of Jewish texts about destruction are studied. Many also have a custom to visit cemeteries.

For a long time, Tisha B’Av was not observed by most Reform communities, though that has begun to change. But for liberal Jews in general, Tisha B’Av is not seen as the main Holocaust memorial day, since Yom HaShoah serves that function in those communities. 

By contrast, in many Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, Tisha B’Av is the primary Holocaust memorial day. One reason for this is the religious, rather than secular, origins of the day. Another is that already in the time of the Talmud, Tisha B’Av became known as a day to observe various tragedies experienced by the Jewish people. Because of this, adding the Holocaust to the list of tragedies mourned on this date is in step with tradition. 

Holocaust remembrance on Tisha B’Av is limited to Jewish communities. It is uncommon to have non-Jewish memorial activities on this day. 

Tenth of Tevet (December or January) 

The Tenth of Tevet is a minor fast day in Judaism that falls in late December or early January, and it marks the start of the Babylonian siege in Jerusalem in 588 BCE, which then led to the First Temple’s destruction. 

Following World War II, the Orthodox Rabbinate in Israel began to mark the events of the Shoah on this date too. Rather than establish a new fast day, remembrance of the Holocaust was added to this minor fast day that marks what could have been, but was not, the end of the Jewish people. Mourner’s Kaddish is recited on this day for those whose place or date of death is unknown and those without living relatives. 

As a day of Holocaust commemoration, the Tenth of Tevet is primarily observed in Orthodox communities, especially those in Israel. However, it has begun to also be observed by some Orthodox communities elsewhere due to the influence of Jewish thought from Israel. It is not known as a Holocaust memorial date in Reform and Conservative communities, nor among non-Jews.

International Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th

On January 27^th, 1945, the Soviet military liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex, and it was thereafter observed as memorial day for the Holocaust in various European countries. In 2005, 60 years after that liberation, the United Nations voted to designate it as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

International Holocaust Memorial Day is not particular to Jews, and many non-Jews take this day to remember the Holocaust and its victims. Countries around the world, including Germany and Israel, host ceremonies that honor survivors and their descendants, feature discussions on the impact of antisemitism today, and listen to recitations of Mourner’s Kaddish or El Maleh Rahamim.

Some Jewish communities, particularly in Reform and Conservative circles, mark this memorial day, though it is generally less observed than other dates. A common Jewish critique of International Holocaust Memorial Day is that the observances on this date are too impersonal due to the  ritualistic nature of many commemoration ceremonies and a tendency to generalize rather than focus on individual lives. In addition, a common critique is International Holocaust Remembrance Day lacks a significant connection to Judaism.

The post All the Holocaust Memorial Days Explained appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Memory Has Brought Us This Far

It is memory that has allowed us to last through thousands of years of history. Our religion and our people are founded on the collective memory of revelation at Sinai. Scripture throughout commands us to remember: Remember the Sabbath day (Exodus 20:8), observe the Sabbath as a reminder of the Creation (Exodus 20:11) and of the Exodus (Deuteronomy 5:15); remember, continually, the Exodus; remember what the evil Amalek did

All those memories define us and help us keep focused on the goal of our national mission. As the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of [Hasidism]) taught, “Forgetfulness leads to exile while remembrance is the secret of redemption,” words that appropriately guard your exit from the history museum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

The wall above the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC also invokes memory. “Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and to your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

Memory as a Positive Force

The biblical citation etched into that wall, while an apt admonition in the face of Auschwitz, is out of context. What the original usage enjoins us never to forget is the experience at Mount Sinai and the laws given to us there, the positive context for purposeful living.

What we have to keep in mind in recalling the Holocaust is that memory must function, as it does in the Bible, as a positive force. It should not be used to inflict guilt and exact vengeance and certainly should not be (as unfortunately occurs) the defining element of Jewish life. We cannot raise our children to be healthy, constructive Jews by cowering them with expectations that the anti-Semitic world will force Jewish identification on them. Being Jewish mainly because the Holocaust happened or because anti-Semitism continues is not sufficient reason to hang on to a culture.

The Jews who maintained their heritage for thousands of years did so not because they were surrounded by rabid anti-Semitism. (Until Hitler’s demonic program, they always had the option to abandon Judaism for another belief system.) They did so because their way of life had value.

Memory and Jewish Renewal

While you are teaching your children about this painful period, remember to teach them that: Don’t talk only about the destruction but about what was destroyed: the rich culture, the intellectual accomplishments, the colorful tradition that was Eastern European Jewish life. Our heritage, our unique value system, our contributions to the world are what we must remember along with our troubled history. These are the memories that will prompt us to effectively engage in the revitalization of Jewish life.

The question each of us must ask is “How will I participate in Jewish renewal?” It may be through your children: raising them to be informed, identified Jews. (One suggested response to the tremendous loss of Jewish life is that each family have one more child than it had planned, to replenish the population, and its potential progeny, cut down by Hitler.)

Strengthening the community by supporting–with money and volunteer efforts–the institutions devoted to promoting Jewish life (physical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual) is a widespread response. Helping ensure that Israel continues to grow and progress so there will always be a safe haven for Jews is of utmost importance.

Memory, Creativity and Learning

If you are creative, produce art, literature, music, dance, or film on Jewish themes. Whether or not you are creative, read Jewish books, visit Jewish museums, attend Jewish programs, subscribe to Jewish periodicals. And, most of all, learn. Learning has always been a cornerstone of Jewish continuity and renewal.

In biblical days, the Israelites emerged from periods of idolatry, devastation, and exile by returning to Torah–reading it, trying to understand and live by it. [In modern times, ] from the ashes of the respected European yeshivot [academies] destroyed in the 1940’s have arisen new Jewish academies and other educational programs in Israel and in America (many of them supported by funds from Jews who are not themselves particularly tradition-minded or Jewishly well educated).

Day school, supplemental, family, and adult education programs are continually being expanded. Make sure your children have access to formal Jewish education (don’t overlook a good Jewish youth group or summer camp), and take advantage of learning opportunities yourself (don’t overlook the possibility of organizing or attending a study group in someone’s home).

All of these acts, while honoring the memory of the generations that preceded us, will create positive new memories and strong new Jewish realities for the generations that follow.

Excerpted from Celebrate! The Complete Jewish Holiday Handbook. Reprinted with permission from Jason Aronson Inc.

The post The Importance of Remembering appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Last month I was lucky enough to represent the ISJL at a program with Ilse Goldberg, the only living Holocaust survivor in the state of Mississippi, in honor of Yom Hashoah. The program was in conjunction with the Museum for the Mississippi Delta, which was hosting The Power of Children: Making a Difference exhibition in its Greenwood, Mississippi location. The exhibit features the stories of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White, encouraging the audience us to explore issues of isolation, fear, and prejudice throughout 20th-century history and today.

When the director first contacted me about the exhibit coming to Greenwood in May, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to plan a program to coincide with Yom HaShoah, especially knowing that one of the Jewish community members, Ilse Goldberg, was a survivor. Ilse is ISJL Board Member Gail Goldberg‘s mother-in-law, and affectionately goes by “MIL.” Holocaust education is not my typical area of expertise, so I was grateful and excited by  the opportunity me to explore the variety of rituals around Yom Hashoah.  Working together with the Goldberg family, we put together an inclusive program that not only memorialized those who were lost during the Holocaust, but also expanded on the themes highlighted in the exhibition, reflecting on the lessons it holds for our lives today.

The program was certainly inclusive: Dozens of Greenwood community members piled into the museum, packing the program room to capacity. With a standing-room-only crowd, about one hundred people listened intently to Ilse’s story, and together honored the memory of those who had perished. Mrs. Goldberg shared her story of fleeing Nazi Germany, staying briefly in Shanghai, China, and ultimately making her home in Memphis and later Greenwood. Local community leaders and clergy participated in the ceremony to signify that only together as a community can we ensure the respect of all peoples, and work to promote human dignity and confront hate whenever and wherever it occurs.

The program was short and sweet, lasting less than an hour. But so many people made a choice to deviate from their regular routine, to take a moment of reflection and remembrance to honor a time and place in history that still has real implications in our lives today.  I was blown away by how many people showed up, waiting in line to visit with “MIL.” I got the sense they sincerely feel so lucky to have her in their community, and they were excited to show their appreciation.

Days of remembrance, like Yom HaShoah or this weekend’s Memorial Day, are marked on our calendar to encourage action. Newly inspired for an action item this weekend, I found the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. They are asking for Jewish organizations throughout our nation to read the names of 56 identified Jewish service people who have given their lives in defense of our country in Iraq and Afghanistan  in memorial. You can find them all in the  list of the Fallen Heroes.

In remembering the names of our fallen brothers and sisters, we succeed in honoring their memories in perpetuity. I will consider them, and the hundreds of others who have given their life. May we never forget their memory.

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The post Reflections on Remembrance: Memorial Day and More appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

The hallmark of observance for years has been the testimony of survivors. Those who witnessed the horrors would share their stories of tragedy and survival, of lives broken and lives rebuilt. Whenever I listen to the story of one who survived I would always be amazed at the combination of opportunity and luck, strength and perseverance, fear and courage contained within these narratives.

READ: How Many Holocaust Survivors Remain Today, And What Challenges Do They Face?

And as I would listen to the testimonies, I would invariably wonder about my own potential for survival. Not to detract from those who did live through the Holocaust, but to personalize the experience, and to better understand the destruction we are capable of unleashing on one another as humans, and marvel at the ability for people to persevere under extraordinary circumstances. So just like at the recent Passover seder when we read in the Haggadah that “each person must see him or herself as if he or she personally left Egypt” so as to understand the experience of liberation, I would imagine as if I came out of the Holocaust, so as to understand the experience of terror and survival.

The observance of Yom Hashoah becomes more difficult with each passing year as the number of survivors dwindles. With each passing year, we draw closer to the challenge of how to commemorate the Holocaust when it no longer is the history of those who can tell their own stories but rather the history of those who can only share the stories of others. We, the surviving remnant, will be left with how to continue this narrative. What will it mean for generations of Jews to remember the Holocaust as the actual history becomes more distant?

One interesting question, I believe, about the future commemoration of the Holocaust is the most appropriate date on which to observe it.

Currently we commemorate the Holocaust on the 27^th of Nissan in the Jewish calendar, on the date established by the government of Israel, which corresponds to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Or might we want to join with the other nations of the world and commemorate the Holocaust on January 27, on the date established by the United Nations General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau?

The two dates tell different stories. The first is an exclusively Jewish narrative, one that uses the Jewish calendar (thus the date changes from year to year in relation to the Gregorian calendar) and tells a particular narrative vis-a-vis the relationship of the Holocaust to the establishment of the state of Israel. The second tells a more global story, one that uses the Gregorian calendar and tells a narrative that is focused both on the Jewish victims and involves the nations of the world.

The question of the appropriate date of commemoration is interesting because it raises the question of the framing of the Holocaust. Will we remember the Holocaust as an exclusively Jewish narrative, or will we remember it in a more universal context?

If the recently completed festival of Passover offers us any clues, it is how we can remember and transform history. Although millennia separate the events of the Holocaust and the events of the Exodus (and we can posit that the “history” of the Exodus is not actual history, but mythic history — a telling of events that, without knowing if they “actually” happened as described, is meant to convey a message), a similar approach may emerge. With Passover we at once remember and retell the story, and allow the story to be a paradigm for the future. “You were strangers in the Land of Egypt,” says the Torah, “therefore do not oppress the stranger.” Our story of liberation becomes a call to action to support the liberation story of others.

With each passing year, as we remember the Holocaust, let us remember that it is not just our story, but a universal story. We remember our stories of destruction, victimhood and survival. And at the same time, we can allow this story to be transformative, to be a means to link to other stories of destruction, and to be a call to action to fight against systematic oppression whenever and wherever it is made manifest.

We commit to never forget so we can say never again — for anyone.

The post Holocaust Remembrance: Particular or Universal? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, known in Hebrew as
Yom HaShoah
, falls this year on April 8^th. For those of you interested in adding some LGBTQ content to your observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we bring you the following resources.

• Watch “Paragraph 175,” a documentary film with unforgettable interviews with gay survivors and the punishments they suffered even after the war ended. The title refers to the law that made homosexuality illegal in Nazi Germany. (You can catch the trailer here.)

• Read The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, for a comprehensive history of how the LGBT community was targeted by the Nazi regime.

• GLAAD, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has resources on their website for observing a moment of silence for gays and lesbians during Yom HaShoah.

• On the blog QJew, Lisa Finkelstein has collected a set of resources for understanding the history of LGBT people in the Second World War.

• Consider incorporating rituals from the Day of Silence and Transgender Day of Remembrance into your, or your synagogue or community’s, rituals for Yom HaShoah. These two holidays commemorate loss and persecution within the LGBTQ community, and can offer a variety of ways to commemorate LGBTQ individuals as part of larger Holocaust Remembrance activities.

• In this essay, Nicholas Artrip suggests that the siren sounded in Israel to commemorate Yom HaShoah might also stir us to think of how LGBT people were treated in the Holocaust, and how we might use our voices today to speak out for them.

• Check out an earlier post on our blog from Keshet staffer Dan Schulman about his trip to Germany, where he visited as part of The Germany Close Up Fellowship: An Open Program for LGBT Professionals.

The post LGBT Resources for Holocaust Remembrance Day appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Tyler is the reporter for the religion and lifestyle section of the Brunswick News, the small local paper where I live, and he was interviewing me for an article on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, when he told me that he just doesn’t get it.

Yom Hashoah has new meaning in the world we live in today.  Anti-Semitism is on the rise in America over the last several years and our consciousness of anti-Semitism has certainly piqued in the last several months. Yom Hashoah can easily exist as the battle cry against those who are against the Jews. But our collective Jewish relationship with the Holocaust and the day we have appointed to remember it is more complex than this.

Over the last decade or so, much has changed in mainstream Jewish organizational life. In short, we have seen a decline in synagogue attendance and participation in large religious institutions while witnessing a rise in the number small start-up Jewish groups and innovative experiments for engaging people meaningfully in Jewish life. This change in the Jewish world affects how the collective is doing/experiencing/celebrating/ritualizing everything.  Up until relatively recently, Yom Hashoah was a day of atrocity and victimization at the hands of history…again. But with this change in the Jewish landscape, I think we are also seeing a change in our Jewish narrative. A new emerging Judaism and Jewish populace is not content to be the suffering victims of society throughout all time. We want, demand and are claiming a different identity than that. And so Holocaust must therefore be rethought.

We’re not shtetl Jews anymore.  We’re not insular.  And we’re not afraid of our non-Jewish neighbors like we once were or even were raised to be. We’re overwhelmingly proud to be Jewish according to a 2012 Pew research study.  And anecdotally at least, it seems fewer people now believe that anything like the Holocaust could happen again to us here.

This brings me back to Tyler Jones. The idea of hating Jews is just beyond the scope of what he can imagine. I think Tyler represents the future.  The up-and-coming generations live in a global world where hate and fear like we saw in Hitler’s Germany is beyond what their Worldwide Web-fed brains can grasp. Thank God.  It may be quite possible that all the hate mongering we see in America today still goes on because the next generation is just that-next; still too young to run the show, not yet having wrested the power of our world from the hands of those who came before them; from those who are, in their eyes, doing it wrong.

The up-and-coming Jews of tomorrow — and maybe even some of us who are the Jews of today — are young, strong, vibrant, and fearless.  The Yom Hashoah narrative of today must have room for heroes because we ourselves are heroes. And it does.

Rabbi Andrew Jacobs of Ramat Shalom Synagogue a founder of ISH in Fort Lauderdale Florida, created a Yom Hashoah service last year that focused on themes of bravery, courage and strength.  It was inspired by some of his middle school students who wanted to hear about tough Jews who tried their best not to be bullied.  The service includes stories of heroes, ordinary people, saving one another’s lives or even saving one another’s souls. I heard Rabbi Jacobs describe this service at a conference where he remarked that people walked out feeling uplifted and empowered.

In my own congregation on the coast of Georgia, we did a similar service modeled after Rabbi Jacobs’ on Friday evening.  I invited a local Episcopal minister to give the sermon on Friday after studying Christian Holocaust theology during lent. Let’s just pause for a moment to appreciate that Christian Holocaust theology is actually a thing.  The Holocaust narrative has already changed in so many ways.

Reforming our Holocaust narrative is one important aspect of our changing relationship with Yom Hashoah.  Another is including a call to justice.  I wrote above that fewer people believe that anything like the Holocaust could happen again to us here.  But something like the Holocaust is happening to other people in other places right now.  Something like the Holocaust could happen to other people, not us, right here in our own country.  If we are to be brave and vibrant and fearless then we must bring that pioneering spirit to bear on the injustices of our day. To truly say “never again” cannot only be about saving ourselves. We would be no different than those who allowed the Holocaust to happen to us because it was not happening to them. “Never again” must mean not to us, not to you, not to anyone, not now, not ever.

So on this day of Yom Hashoah, we are called to remember the 11 million people murdered in the Holocaust.  We are charged to honor the memory of those who were lost, the communities decimated, and the generations snuffed out by moving out of our history of victimhood into a present of empowerment and strength.  And from that place of power, we must fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

The post Why We Need to Change the Yom Hashoah Narrative appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

This year, Yom Hashoah will largely be observed online. Here’s a guide to commemoration events.

Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car: Using poetry and the Bible to confront our responsibility to remember – 12 p.m.: Join My Jewish Learning where we will analyze the poetry of survivor Dan Pagis as a window into his theological claims against God and to explore what it means to “remember.” Join via Zoom.

Yom Hashoah Cello Concert with Aaron Fried: On Tuesday, April 21 at 6 p.m. Eastern time, My Jewish Learning will be hosting a performance of songs of mourning, resistance and hope that have been arranged for solo cello by Aaron Fried. Watch the concert via Zoom here.

Yad Vashem: Israel’s national Holocaust museum is inviting the public to participate in an international campaign to record a reading of the names of Holocaust victims and share the video on social media using the hashtags #RememberingFromHome and #ShoahNames. Click here for more information.

Virtual March of the Living: The annual march from Auschwitz to Birkenau is being held virtually this year and is free for anyone to watch on April 21 at 7 p.m. Eastern time. The broadcast will feature an address by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and first-hand testimony from noted Holocaust survivors. The event can be watched live here.

The Holocaust Center for Humanity: The Seattle-based Holocaust education center will be hosting a live virtual program on April 21 at noon Pacific time. For details click here.

UJA-Federation of New York: The New York Jewish federation will host a virtual Yom Hashoah program on April 21 at 3 p.m. Eastern featuring Holocaust survivor Bernie Igielski and words of inspiration from Rabbi Kenneth Hain. Register here for Zoom link.

Selfhelp Community Services: The New York nonprofit serving Holocaust survivors will host a Yom Hashoah program based on the work of Witness Theater, a program that brings survivors and student actors together on stage to share stories of survival. Join the program on April 20 at 7 p.m. Eastern on Selfhelp’s website. 

Sid Jacobson JCC: An intergenerational observance with Holocaust survivors, and American and Israeli teens. Join via Zoom on April 21 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Teach the Shoah:  Light from the Darkness, a virtual ritual of remembrance, will take place on April 20 at 7 p.m. Central time. Modeled on the Passover Seder, the ritual features song and story, ritual and remembrance. 

Israel Memorial Siren: Join a global audience April 20 at 12:45 p.m. Eastern for a live event during the sounding of Israel’s Holocaust memorial siren, including candle lighting in memory of the victims and the recitation of Kaddish.  six million, say Kaddish, and hear a Survivor’s testimony in-English. The event will take place on Monday, April 20th 12:45 p.m. (EDT). For more information click here. 

Sutton Place Synagogue: The New York synagogue will be hosting an online commemoration that on its website on April 20 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

Adas Israel Congregation: Live from Washington D.C., Adas Israel will host a commemoration on April 21 at 7 Eastern on its Facebook page. 

Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation: JPEF will be hosting a program on April 22 at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

Selfhelp: A historical interview with Holocaust Survivor and esteemed artist Fred Terna: Virtual Gallery Tour and Q+A. Selfhelp is sharing the stories of our Holocaust survivor clients through art. Click here to view  Holocaust survivor and world-renowned artist Fred Terna including a virtual tour of the HEARTS art exhibition featuring one of Terna’s paintings. Terna asks his viewers during these challenging times to be: “A community that is fair, just, and open, and aware of the necessity of caring for each other”

Habonim Dror North America: Join others in commemorating Yom Hashoah with Rachel Roth and her family on April 20 3:30 p.m. Eastern. Register here to join.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Washington museum will be hosting an online commemoration on its Facebook page at 11 a.m.  Eastern on April 21.

JRoots: The organization’s Global Day of Testimony will provide an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of survivors from home. The program will run from April 20-22. For more information click here. 

22nd Annual West Side Communal Observance of Yom Hashoah: Reading of the Names: This year, the all-night, all-day Reading of the Names by congregations and Jewish organizations of the Upper West Side will take place on Facebook Live beginning at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 20 and continuing until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21. Join us to bear witness and commemorate those lost in the Shoah. The Reading of the Names will be punctuated throughout the day with speakers and teachers — a complete schedule is available on the event page. Anyone is welcome to add names by posting a comment during the course of the Reading of the Names. People are also encouraged to include photos and family stories as we move to this online platform, enabling participation in a new way.

Museum of Jewish Heritage: Annual Gathering of Remembrance on April 19 at 2 p.m. Speakers include Holocaust survivors and their family members, Ambassador Dani Dayan – Consul General of Israel in New York, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Michael Burstyn, Steven Skybell, Jessica Shaw, and many others. This program will be presented on their Facebook page,  YouTube channel, and website homepage.

Birmingham (AL) Holocaust Education Center: The Birmingham (AL) Holocaust Education Center has an upcoming Community Education and Bearing Witness Series, which begins next Thursday, April 23 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. The session, “Collaboration and Its Limits” will be facilitated by Rabbi Steven Jacobs, University of Alabama. Click here to register.

Congregation Beth Ahm: Join Beth Ahm of West Bloomfield, Michigan, for a reading of Megillat Hashoah online on April 20 at 7 p.m. Eastern. To register click here. 

The Holocaust Museum of Houston: The museum’s virtual observance will be held on April 19 at 3 p.m. Central on its website and on their YouTube channel. 

JFCS Holocaust Center: The San Francisco Holocaust education center will hold a reading of the names of Holocaust victims and a community Yizkor service on April 20. beginning at 4 p.m. Pacific time. For more information click here. 

Jewish Federation of Charleston: On April 19 at 4 p.m. Eastern join Charleston’s virtual Yom Hashoah gathering via Zoom. For more information click here. 

JCRC of Greater Washington: On April 19 at 1 p.m. Eastern join the JCRC online for their annual Yom Hashoah commemoration. Community-Wide Commemoration. Sign up  here to receive a link to the live stream and the program booklet.

Jewish Federation of San Diego: The southern California federation will be hosting several programs beginning April 19. To learn more click here. 

Sixth and I:  On April 20, this Washington, D.C., congregation will host a virtual gathering at 7 p.m. Eastern. For more information click here. 

JCRC of Greater Washington: On April 23 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, the JCRC of Greater Washington will host a conversation with Jennifer Rosner, debut novelist of “The Yellow Bird Sings.” For more information click here. 

Together We Remember: Looking to create your own local program? Check out a slew of online virtual resources compiled by Together We Remember.

The post Yom Hashoah Online Ceremonies and Resources appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

When President Trump issued his executive order banning refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, setting off a wave of protests and condemnations, many Jewish groups who opposed the ban noted the cruel irony that the ban was issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In addition, Jewish groups also noted with dismay that the statement the Trump White House issued in observance of that day failed to mention Jews specifically, saying that they “took into account all of those who suffered.”

What was interesting is not just these two developments, but that the American Jewish community was paying attention and giving weight to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In general, the American Jewish community reserves its commemoration for the Holocaust to Yom Hashoah.

The background of the two days are different. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on January 27, designated by the United Nations General Assembly and coinciding with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Yom Hashoah (also called “Holocaust Memorial Day” in English) is on the 27^th of Nissan on the Jewish calendar (so the Gregorian date shifts year to year, this year it falls on April 24), designated by the Knesset in Israel and meant to evoke the date of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

And so while American Jewish communities generally join with the Israeli community commemorating the Holocaust on Yom Hashoah in the spring, these recent events suggest that perhaps the American Jewish community should shift its observance of the Holocaust to International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January.

The Trump executive order coinciding with International Holocaust Remembrance Day has highlighted for American Jews a fundamental aspect of our narrative: that we are a people whose history — both mythic biblical history and actual history—is one of immigrants and refugees.

This Shabbat in our weekly Torah reading cycle we read Parshat Beshallach, which recounts the climax of the Exodus narrative when hundreds of thousands of Israelites leave Egyptian slavery. It is a paradigmatic story of liberation from oppression, which also involves a mass migration.

And Jewish history is replete with examples of Jewish communities fleeing and seeking safe haven in other lands. American Jewish history is defined by immigration, and we also know too well how this country’s refusal to admit Jewish refugees from Europe during World War II led to devastating consequences. (For example, the story of the St. Louis)

The Trump order and its corresponding date thus provided an important reminder to American Jews—that when we commemorate the Holocaust, our commemoration should fit our narrative and history as American Jews, and not the narrative of Israel. The histories are different, the outcomes are different, and we need to claim our unique story in the development of post-Holocaust Jewish community.

[Which is why, too, the absence from the Trump commemorative statement proved so shocking.]

The American Jewish community has embraced the values not only of Judaism but of America. When confronted with presidential orders that limit immigration and ban refugees, we need to recall our own history as immigrants and refugees. When orders target one religion, we need to recall our own struggle, with both the promise of religious liberty and the challenge of belonging to a minority faith. When certain groups are deemed “other,” we need to recall our own fight against anti-Semitism and hatred, and the promise that all people are equal.

Thus the new political reality provides a new opportunity of activism for Jews in which we “do not oppress the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt,” as it says many times in our Torah. And it may prove a shift in how–and when–we remember the most devastating episode of our modern history as well.

The post Why American Jews Should Stop Observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

READ: How Hannah Senesh Became a National Heroine of Israel

While I love, appreciate and respect the original musical composition to Hannah Senesh’s poem, I would like to introduce a new composition and approach to her poem, which aims to revive the feelings of this young, Jewish poet had at the moment she wrote the song.

In order to understand why the poem, “A Walk to Caesarea,” is associated with the Holocaust we must first learn about Hannah Senesh:

Hannah Senesh, a young Zionist woman of Hungarian descent, was a special operations paratrooper. She was one of 37 Jews who parachuted into Yugoslavia during World War II with the mission to rescue Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. During this operation, Hannah was caught, imprisoned, tortured and executed by Nazi-backed Hungarian military.

Learning about Hannah Senesh’s story, it is clear why one of her poems became a song that symbolizes Yom Hashoah. In addition, David Zahavi’s composition of her poem is very mournful which is suiting for this somber occasion.

Inspired by Jewish-American artists such as Craig Taubman, Debbie Friedman and the culture of writing new melodies to old text, I decided to take it upon myself to write a new interpretation of this old poem. In my new composition, I aim to express the original feeling Hannah Senesh had at the moment she walked on the beach in Caesarea (on Israel’s Mediterranean coast) and wrote (translated from Hebrew):

My God, My God

May these things never end;

The sand and the sea

The rustle of the water

The lightning in the sky

The prayer of Man.

Therefore, contrary to the original composition by David Zahavi, I do not wish to emphasize the story of her death, but focus on her life, the gratitude, joy and hope expressed in her poem, “A Walk to Caesarea.”

After composing the song, I contacted my friend, Craig Taubman, who has been a great inspiration and mentor to me, and asked him to collaborate with me on this project. Craig liked the new composition in my vision and together with my band, Sol Tevél, we recorded and filmed this new interpretation of the poem titled, “Eli Eli Revival.”

The post Reimagining A Holocaust Classic appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Click here for more information about the Holocaust, including its full history and impact, efforts to memorialize it and theological implications. 

It was clear that the song affected my son. I know that his school gives careful attention to teaching students what they are emotionally ready to handle, and that through this song, he was being exposed to more knowledge about the Holocaust than he had been in previous grades.

I was gratified to see that he connected to the Holocaust and to the history of the Jewish people in a new and deeper way. This connection is exactly the reason my husband and I send him to a Jewish day school.

His music teacher astutely observed that the song hit a chord with Micah and (going above and beyond as she often does) thoughtfully emailed me at night with a link to share with him – a video depicting the tale the song tells. (View it here.) She told me that she chose not to show it in school, but Micah expressed a higher level of interest, approaching her after class. She gave me the link, leaving it to me to decide whether to show him the video or not.

I watched the video. While I appreciated the idea of animating the story through video, something about it bothered me. I decided to share it with Micah. “Did you notice anything unusual about the clip?” I asked him. He smiled at me, knowing that my very posing the question was a hint at what the answer might be.

“Yes,” he responded. “There were no women in it.”

I debated about whether it is appropriate to call attention to gender issues in connection with the Holocaust. I decided that Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was not the right day to raise this issue for two reasons. First, Yom Hashoah should be a day solely devoted to remembering the victims of what is arguably the worst tragedy to befall the Jewish people in its entire history. That is all. Second, I do not believe that this video is representative of Holocaust education.

READ: Women in Holocaust Literature: Central Themes

Instead, it is but one instance of many that point to the absence of women from the tools we use to tell our collective narrative. Only this example was more disturbing than, say, censoring women out of the news or overlooking their presence in synagogue. Because we are here now – we have the ability to raise our voices and say “We are here – in the news and in our synagogues and in our communal leadership positions.” But the women who perished in the Holocaust – the proud and loving and graceful and smart and kind and witty women who were killed cannot raise their voices to say that they were a critical part of their Jewish communities and they deserve to be represented and remembered.

And so I raise a point about gender because when we teach our children – whether we are teaching about the Holocaust or anything else – we are forming what is normative, and we are shaping their opinions and their perspectives.

To be clear, I don’t think that the makers of this video had any malicious intent. Just like I don’t think it is malicious when an Orthodox man looking to make a minyan asks, “How many people do we have?” instead of “How many men are here?” (Only men are counted in an Orthodox minyan, or prayer quorum.) Nor is it malicious when I read a widely-used children’s parsha (Torah portion) book with my kids and need to adjust “The Torah teaches us to honor an older man” to “an older person.” It is not malicious, but it implies that men and community are one in the same, and that if men are represented, then the community is represented. This mentality marginalizes the role of the Jewish woman and that can have dangerous consequences, even though they are unintentional.

I encourage our Jewish educators, policy makers, rabbis and leaders to utilize language and images that tell of our whole Jewish community – so that women can truly feel that this community is the place where they belong.

The post The Place Where I Belong appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Leon grew up in Germany, and was still a boy when he fled to Belgium in the 1930s to escape Nazi tyranny. Throughout his life he shared memories of life as a young Jewish German refugee in Belgium. He shared letters with us that his parents had written, which demonstrated their attempts to obtain permission to emigrate to the United States, to no avail.

For those wishing to learn more about the Holocaust, MyJewishLearning has a trove of information about Yom Hashoah and the Holocaust, including its full history and impact, efforts to memorialize it,  and theological implications. 

In 1940, the German army invaded Belgium. The occupation under Nazi regime made life for the Jewish population perilous. In September 1942, Leon’s older brother Henry and his parents were sent to Auschwitz. Tragically, his parents were immediately gassed upon their arrival. His older brother survived for a while under the hardship of forced labor, but eventually died in 1943. This was all ultimately related to Leon by a friend of his brother’s who survived the camp. Leon spent the war in a Belgian orphanage and was fortunate that he was sponsored by family to come to the United States at the end of the war.

We lost my father-in-law not long ago. I am grateful that Leon shared these stories and memories with his children and grandchildren. I believe that as we lose more and more of the last living survivors of the Shoah, it is our duty to keep telling these stories. We must honor and remember those whose lives were lost, and those who witnessed and survived the unfathomable horrors of World War II.

Leon told us his stories, which we must now share — but he also left behind beautiful creations, and one of his last artistic endeavors also tells the story of the Shoah. I wanted to share it in honor of Leon, and in acknowledgment of this somber memorial holiday.

Leon was passionate about his oil painting. We have so many of his canvases on the walls of our home, we jokingly refer to our “Leon Schipper Gallery.” After he died, we returned to Mississippi with the last painting that Leon created. I think it is the only painting of the horrors of the Shoah, and it is a powerful and painful image, shared above.

On this day, I remember, Leon, who survived; his family members who perished; and the millions of others who were killed during the Holocaust. May all of their memories be for a blessing. May we never forget. And may we accept the responsibility of being the ones to share the stories, display the artwork, and continue the conversation agreeing “Never again.”

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The post A Painting of Pain & The Responsibility of Remembrance appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Let’s start with Joshua’s concern that, at a recent rally for the three kidnapped boys in Israel, there was a stark lack of young people present. Likewise, he notes, at communal Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut events, the presence of a younger generation is often lacking.  Is it that they don’t care? Are we dealing with a more self-centered generation than in the past? These are some of Joshua’s questions.

While there may be some partial truths there, I think a step back to look at the worlds that many of our teens and young adults are living in may be more instructive. And not just our teens and young adults, but many other segments of our communities too. One of the things that I’ve observed is that often, regardless of the topic or the issue, any Jewish gathering that aims to or claims to bring all sections of the community together often reaches none, or very few. Perhaps only those who are comfortably self-identified as the Jewish establishment will appear (those are the 50+ folk that Joshua saw in his crowd). They know that we are addressing them. Others may not be so sure unless we break things down and are more explicit about who we mean.

This is why there are many independent communities and minyanim that have popped up in recent years. Not necessarily identified along established denominational lines, they are, in part, a result of young Jews who are less interested in simply “belonging” to an established Jewish entity because it is already there, and are more interested in creating something that fits who they are, where they can be with like-minded folk.  It is why, within a more established kind of Jewish congregation—one like my own where we are the most significant gathering place for Jews who come to us from 20 different towns—our ability to engage and connect with our members requires us to correctly identify many of the different groups and interests within our larger membership and provide a range of doorways in for those specific needs (creating many small gatherings and opportunities within the large). Its why many congregations realized that when you simply advertise “adult education” you always seem to get the same group of, primarily, empty-nesters and retirees in attendance. Its not that others aren’t interested in learning; it’s just that its only when the kids have left home that you finally have some time to do study for its own sake. Or perhaps you now begin to seek new realms of meaning now that not so much of that meaning-making is invested in raising children. That doesn’t mean we can never get other groups to come and learn with us. It just means we have to be really smart about what it is they need at other junctures of their lives.

So I’ve found teens and young adults to be very engaged with Israel, and deeply able to connect with the impact of the Shoah on Jewish peoplehood, but in places where they come to be with each other. Joshua and I shared the same community for a while. The year that we brought our annual Yom HaShoah observance into our community High School Tuesday evening gathering, it was very powerful to see a couple of hundred teens watch Holocaust survivors light candles, and hear the testimony of one of them. Several teens every year did the “Adopt a Survivor” program and personally got to know one survivor and commit to tell their story. It was clear that they had a connection in our debrief the following week. But do they come on a Sunday afternoon for a “communal” event? Not so much.

Laura’s very honest reflections on how, at an event that was meant to bring community together, she felt somewhat uncomfortable and disconnected from narratives being offered by Jewish leadership from another denomination is, I believe, another dimension of some of the same cultural phenomenon. On almost no topic are we a “one community” mindset. It is almost impossible for anyone to speak anymore and be accepted as “the voice” of the people, or even of a particular moment. Perhaps there was a time, in a more modernist era, where we were willing to let voices of authority speak on behalf of all of us—a Chief Rabbi (in the UK, for example; something that was far more accepted a few decades ago than it is now), a communal leader at a rally, an Op-Ed in a newspaper. But today, some of the most successful Jewish communal events are ones that focus on and celebrate plurality and diversity of voice—take the enormous world-wide success of Limmud, for example. Even on something where you might have assumed that, at least publicly, we’d all stand with one voice, it is the right to have even the minority voice heard that overrides any sense that doing so might undermine a perceived communal unity. Take the position of Jewish Voice for Peace on BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), for example, and their recent role in a Presbyterian Church vote to partially divest from three companies doing business in Israel. Some are outraged by their presence in the public square of debate on Israel. But, if we take a step back from the issue and better understand our cultural context, in which we have celebrated and empowered those who are drawn to define and act upon their own sense of justice in a plurality of ways, we shouldn’t be surprised by the result.

Just to be clear, I’m not mourning the lack of perceived unity and peoplehood. Neither am I celebrating it. I’m simply describing the cultural landscape that I believe we are living in the ways that I see it. Simply better understanding it can, I believe, help us do our work in connecting Jews together, engaging Jews in communities, activities and causes, with more successful outcomes. Trying to get everyone at the same event, on the same page, and caring in the same way is a fruitless exercise. We can, however, be successful in creating or supporting many gateways, many voices, and many opportunities to be and do Jewish with each other.

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In Israel, war is a perpetual reality. Virtually everyone serves in the army. There have been six wars fought since 1948, with the first four (1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973) threatening Israel’s very existence. Even when it is not in formal war, Israel faces constant border skirmishes and rocket attacks from its hostile neighbors. And, perhaps most importantly, everyone has a relative or close friend who has perished in combat. Yom Hazikaron is marked in Israel with piercing air raid sirens, interrupting the evening and later the morning and bringing everyone together to commemorate the fallen. Ironically, for the generation I was teaching in religious school, America too has been in a perpetual state of war since 9/11. But because of our huge population, the remoteness of the armed conflict, and our strength compared to that of Afghanistan or Iraq, war for Americans lacks any existential resonance. We might worry about the financial impact of war and whether our troops are getting the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) treatment they deserve, but we do not worry about whether America will be wiped off the map tomorrow. When Memorial Day was first proclaimed on May 6, 1868, by General John Logan, to honor dead soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War, I imagine it did express a similar sense of somber uncertainty. But today Memorial Day means little more than permission to wear white pants until Labor Day.

So the more interesting question to me is this: which Memorial Day is preferable, from a meta-perspective? Yes, Memorial Day in Israel certainly means more, but is that a good thing? Or would we prefer for Israel to reach a state of power and stability that it no longer fears the threat of annihilation that Yom Hazikaron hints at? From a psychological standpoint, don’t we want our children to grow up without losing friends and family to armed combat? Assuming conscription remains necessary given Israel’s small size, wouldn’t we prefer to military service in Israel to feel more like military service in Switzerland–an exercise of vigilance rather than preparing for the inevitable loss of life in war? On the other hand, Yom Hazikaron takes on a sacred feel that Memorial Day does not. Do we want to risk losing this sense of kedusha, of holiness? Do we like what it signifies about the value of each human life; of dedication to an obligation bigger than oneself?

I am eager to hear your thoughts. And in the meantime, may each of us take some time today to pause and reflect about the ultimate sacrifice paid by so many Israelis to enable each of us to have a Jewish Homeland to enjoy and celebrate.

The post Do We Prefer Yom Hazikaron or Memorial Day? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

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In a revolutionary attempt to ritualize the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Conservative movement has produced the first-ever formal liturgy for the holiday.

Dubbed “Megillat Hashoah“–“The Scroll of the Holocaust”–the document was recited publicly for the first time in North America during an April 29 ceremony here at Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue [in Toronto]. About 1,100 worshipers turned out for the event, which marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah.

Holocaust Remembrance Day was fixed by the Israeli government during the 1950s as an annual observance on the Hebrew date corresponding to the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943. Adopted over the years by Jewish communities around the world, it is commonly marked with a patchwork of poetry readings, musical performances, and speeches by Holocaust survivors, communal leaders, and politicians. In recent years, however, rabbis and theologians–particularly in the Diaspora–have complained that the holiday needs a formalized and less secular set of rituals if it is to outlive the last generation of Holocaust survivors.

The Need for a New Liturgy

The new Conservative liturgy, unveiled last year in Israel, represents the first attempt by a major Jewish religious movement to address the void. “Having one central text, shared by Jews wherever they live, will unite us and make possible the perpetuation of the story,” Rabbi Reuven Hammer, president of the Rabbinical Assembly, wrote in one of three introductions to the Megillah. “It will help us to fill what has become the new imperative of Jewish life: We must all view ourselves as if we had personally experienced the Shoah.”

Following the ceremony in Toronto, worshippers interviewed by the Forward said that the Megillah was an important development.

“I felt it was a necessity, and I’ll be here again every year that I can,” said Norm Solomon, a longtime member of Beth David. “It was very moving. I just wish there would have been more young people here to be a part of it.”

Past Attempts Have Failed

Previous attempts to infuse the holiday with religious overtones have met with resistance. In 2000, controversy erupted in Philadelphia when a Conservative rabbi instituted a day of silence as a theological rebuke of God. In response, Ruth Littner Shaw of the Philadelphia chapter of Sons and Daughters of Holocaust Survivors wrote a letter to the Jewish Exponent in defense of the holiday’s current secular character.

“Yom Hashoah must not be characterized as a religious holiday,” she wrote, “but as a commemoration of our martyrs who perished under the Nazi war machine, and a tribute to those who survived.”

Despite such sentiments, the Rabbinical Assembly and the Conservative movement’s rabbinical seminary in Israel, the Schechter Institute, have published the new Megillah. It was written by Avigdor Shinan, a professor of Hebrew literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with the help of an academic committee.

Addressing the gathering in Toronto, Shinan told worshippers that the Megillah had been written through him, not by him. “I sat down at the computer, and after six hours the first draft emerged,” said Shinan, the son of Holocaust survivors. “It was as if somebody was moving my hand and my head.”

Contents of the New Megillah

The six-chapter Megillah is built largely around first-person testimonies. After an opening chapter that gives a searing overview of the victims’ suffering, it offers composite sketches of a Christian journalist observing life in the Warsaw Ghetto, a Jewish woman in a work camp, and a Jewish youth who was forced to pull out the teeth from his brother’s corpse and shove other dead bodies into ovens. A fifth chapter consists of a eulogy for those who died in the Holocaust; the final chapter recounts the efforts to rebuild Jewish life after the war ended.

Organizers of the Megillah say that, in addition to supplying a set ritual, the new document is meant to address theological questions posed by the Holocaust but often ignored at communal ceremonies.

In one chapter, the woman in the work camp blames the Jews of Europe for ignoring the rising tide of anti-Semitism and rejecting the advice to “emigrate to the distant east.” Others place the question–though not necessarily direct blame–at God’s feet.

The overriding theological message of the Megillah is that human beings have a right to question the divine, but they cannot expect answer –and that even without answers, the Jewish faith in God endures. The Megillah ends with the exhortation: “Do not mourn too much, but do not sink into the forgetfulness of apathy. Do not allow days of darkness to return; weep, but wipe the tears away. Do not absolve and do not exonerate, do not attempt to understand. Learn to live without an answer. Through our blood, live!”

The Role of Ritual

In addition to reading the Megillah, several members of the Schechter Institute, including its president, Rabbi David Golinkin, have adopted the practice of fasting on Yom Hashoah.

“Historic events are remembered in Judaism only if they are anchored in religious rituals,” Golinkin wrote in his introduction to Megillat Hashoah. “The kindling of six torches by survivors in the courtyard of Yad Vashem is a meaningful ritual, but will it last when there are no living survivors?”

Adopting a fixed ritual for Holocaust Remembrance Day appears to fly in the face of an argument made in 1999 by Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary and nominal head of Conservative Judaism. Writing in JTS Magazine, Schorsch argued that Yom Hashoah should be folded into Tisha B’Av, a fast day on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av that commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple and other historic Jewish tragedies. A JTS spokeswoman said Schorsch would not comment on the new Megillah because he had not read enough about it or enough of the Megillah itself to comment.

While the effort to merge the two holidays has been sidelined for now, Megillat Hashoah does incorporate elements of Tisha B’Av. For example, part of the new Megillah is supposed to be chanted in the same melody used on the Tisha B’Av to recite the biblical Book of Lamentations, the dark account of life in ancient Israel after the destruction of the First Temple.

As opposed to the practice on other holidays, a blessing is not recited over the reading of Megillat Hashoah, said Rabbi Philip Scheim, religious leader of Beth David and author of the third introduction.

How the Holocaust Scroll Came To Be

Scheim credited Alex Eisen, a Holocaust survivor and member of Beth David, for coming up with the idea for Megillat Hashoah. More than five years ago, Eisen suggested that creating a liturgical Megillah would supply a unifying structure for the holiday and enable Jewish communities to observe it in a more spiritual way.

“Yom Hashoah is a secular commemoration in most communities,” Scheim told the Forward. Eisen “wanted to make it into a religious commemoration.” The Rabbinical Assemly and the Schechter Institute agreed to back the proposal.

A dynamic fundraiser, Eisen collected $280,000 in Toronto to sustain the project.

Shinan said he was uncertain how widely his text would be used in coming years. The Megillah was read this year on the eve of Yom Hashoah in Conservative congregations throughout Israel and the next day, April 29, at the Schechter Institute.

“I think it will take a few years for Megillat Hashoah to become part of the knowledge of rabbis and teachers” in North America, Shinan said. “I wish that many people will read it, but I’m realistic at the same time.”

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Ideally, a commemoration should reach out and bring Jews of every background together. In the Holocaust, there are no differences between religious or secular, assimilated or committed Jews. The unity of Jewish destiny should be a given in all remembrances

Any Holocaust liturgy should avoid total affirmation or resolution. This tragedy, too destructive to be overcome lightly or swiftly, poses radical questions to all humanity. Nor should the mood be one of total defeat and despair; that would not do justice either to those who remained faithful even in the moments of greatest agony or to the incredible renewal of life that survivors exhibited after the war.

Which Prayers?

In light of the inability to express the inexpressible, prayers preferably should be taken from the actual writings and testimony of those who went through the Holocaust. Similarly, most commemorations incorporate music from the camps and ghettoes. The various languages of the Jewish people also should be included. One must fight Hitler by refusing to yield cultural heritage to destruction.

A service should conclude with the traditional mourners’ prayer, the Kaddish. Traditionally, when someone dies without leaving immediate family, the nearest relative recites the Kaddish. For millions in the Holocaust, the entire family, with all its branches, was wiped out; now Jews are the nearest living relatives; the entire congregation can appropriately join in saying Kaddish.

For those who have religious or other reservations, however, the alternative is that the entire group stand together while some recite the words. Those who feel they should not recite the Kaddish should stand in silence, which, after all, may be the only authentic liturgical response to the Holocaust.

Candles

The single most widespread ritual observance is the lighting of memorial candles for the six million.  This practice is well-nigh universal.  Candles have a long history as memorial lights and as symbols of life.  In a day that started with no inherited form, how powerful is the religious spirit that instantly picked out a symbol so totally rooted in tradition yet so contemporary.

In most ceremonies, six candles are lit, one for each million. Survivors, when present, are asked to do the lighting. In some communities, seven candles are lit, thereby linking up to the ancient menorah symbolism.

Non-Jews in the Shoah and Holocaust Commemorations

The seventh candle has been designated differently in various communities. Some have honored righteous Gentiles who died in the Shoah trying to help Jews; some paid tribute to the righteous Gentiles whether or not they died; some have lit the light in memory of non-Jewish victims (for example, gypsies and Poles killed in Auschwitz). Inclusion of non-Jewish victims has been criticized as a dilution of the Jewish character of the Holocaust, an attempt to evade the uniqueness of the Nazis’ demonic decision to wipe out every last Jew.

The critics point out that mass killings of other groups were connected to “rational” objectives (killing of political opposition, annihilation of Russian POWs, genocide of Polish intelligentsia). In this view, the evil of such crimes should not be mitigated, but they should not be lumped together with the “final solution” of the Jewish problem, whose total nature defied logic, economic advantage, and even military need.

The matter is complicated and highly emotional. There is a danger of so stressing the uniqueness of the Holocaust that it is turned into a solipsistic event with no consequences or meanings for others. Excess in interpretation can even turn talk of the Shoah into a covert claim of superiority (I suffer, therefore I am better than you). On balance, legitimate use of analogies and comparisons to other events is possible, although the distinctions must be kept clear, perhaps even underscored, at such moments.

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There was a strong tradition that all great tragedies were to be incorporated into the sacred round of Judaism. The great question was: What day should be used?

From the beginning, one of the deep issues in dealing with the Holocaust has been the issue of continuity or discontinuity. Given the totality of the tragedy, was this event something unique or just another in the long list of tribulations, expulsions, disasters that mark Jewish history?

Classically, tradition tried to choose a day connected to the event, preferably an anniversary date such as Passover, Hanukkah, or Tisha B’Av. But what could be the anniversary of the Holocaust? This was no one-time affair; it went on year-round for years. Perhaps a period of the year should be set aside, but when?

A General "Day of Kaddish"

So massive was the scale of the Holocaust killing and so reckless its speed that for most of the dead there was no firm knowledge of the Yahrzeit, the actual date of death. Indeed, for many of the dead there were no survivors of the immediate family to say Kaddish. Finally, in 1948, after some earlier incidents and rulings crystallized the question, the Israeli rabbinate proposed a Yom Kaddish Klali, a general Day of Kaddish to be said for all those for whom there were relatives to say the prayer but no known date of death, and for those for whom there was no relative to say Kaddish but others would say it for them.

Given the high number of victims in the above two categories, the rabbinate also proposed that this general (or communal) Kaddish day be the day of Holocaust commemoration. The day chosen was Asarah B’Tevet, the tenth day of the tenth month of the Hebrew calendar. This is a fast day that traditionally marks the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem which led to the destruction of the Temple.

Why the Tenth of Tevet?

The choice of the tenth of Tevet is worth consideration. Clearly, its selection reflects the idea of incorporating the newest tragedy into the chain of tradition without introducing any halakhic innovation. This decision affirmed that the destruction of the Temple remains the paradigm and acme of Jewish tragedy. But why not incorporate this event into the ninth of Av, as most of the medieval tragedies had been?

The answer is instructive. Of the four days of mourning for the Temple, Tisha B’ Av was the strongest in terms of participation by the Jewish people. Shivah Asar B’Tammuz was far less observed. The third fast day, Tzom Gedaliah, was more neglected yet. Of all the fast days however, the tenth of Tevet was by far the weakest.

Isolated from other holy days, far removed on the calendar from the climactic destruction whose inception it commemorates, the day had dwindled to a marginal existence except in the most traditional circles. This day could benefit most from an injection of ceremony and from connection to a new constituency. In short, the choice of the tenth of Tevet for a Holocaust commemoration day was designed to shore up the dwindling fortunes of the day.

Could the Holocaust "Save" a Minor Fast Day?

In other words, far from coming to grips with the awesome emotional, historical, and theological weight of the Holocaust, the rabbinate still was operating under the sign of the destruction of the Temple. For it, that was the catastrophe of record. Far from considering that the Holocaust was a novum or at least was too massive to be subsumed within existing rubrics, far from confronting the Holocaust as a category-shattering event, the rabbinate sought to incorporate this hurban [destruction] within an existing (minor) halakhic pattern in order to strengthen that pattern.

The rabbinate’s ruling fell totally flat. There was no intrinsic connection between the Holocaust and the chosen day. The lack of fundamental thinking implicit in the decision reflected itself in the absence of any other proposed rituals. The ruling left the Labor left wing, the nonobservant Zionist, and the ghetto fighter groups totally dissatisfied. The proposal never caught on with religious Jews either. The Holocaust could not be used to save the tenth of Tevet. The choice of a memorial day that sought maximum continuity with the past was a nonstarter. That fact is a powerful statement of the theological common sense of the Jewish people.

Survivors Propose a Commemoration Date

The final and critical source of a push for commemoration came from a group of ex-ghetto fighters, partisans, members of the underground resistance to the Nazis. During the Holocaust, Zionist youth groups had been particularly active in armed resistance. A number of these fighters had come to Israel and had been absorbed into the Labor establishment.

It is ironic, of course, that this group took the lead in pressing for Holocaust commemoration. In effect, this was deemed the one group that had no apologies to make-because it had fought! These leaders had brought no "shame" on Zionist ideals; they represented no negative model that might "contaminate" Sabras [native-born Israelis].

Under this leadership, the campaign for a memorial authority soon built armed resistance centrally into the theme. The authority was to memorialize Hashoah VeHagevurah, "the Holocaust and the Heroism." For the ghetto fighters, there was only one day worthy of being a memorial anniversary for the Holocaust–April 19, the beginning day of the Warsaw ghetto revolt, the greatest revolt of them all, the uprisings that had held the Nazis at bay for a longer period than the great French army.

Wrangling over the Date of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Zionists living in Israel objected to the solar calendar date, insisting that the day be marked on the Hebrew lunar calendar. That date was totally objectionable to the Orthodox Jews: It was the fifteenth of Nissan; the Warsaw revolt had broken out on the first night of Passover. The revolt began then because the Nazis, determined to wipe out the ghetto totally, had scheduled their attack on that day.

The Nazis hoped to accomplish two additional objectives in choosing that date for the final assault: one was shattering and trampling the Jewish Passover holiday; the other was completely mopping up in one day, in time to offer the final solution of the Warsaw ghetto problem to Adolf Hitler as a present for his birthday, which was April 20.

In hindsight, one shudders to think about what would have happened had the Orthodox Jews not been opposed and the date of 15 Nissan or the immediate days of Passover following been chosen as the day of commemoration. This would have constituted a decision to permanently incorporate unspoken disdain for the vast majority of the six million dead into the official Holocaust commemoration.

All the arrogance of those outside the Holocaust–those who had never known hunger beyond endurance, terror beyond imagination, family obligations under conditions of grave peril–would have been crystallized in this statement. The Western macho tradition would have won out over some sense of the heroism of mother love, of the courage of educating children in the shadow of death, of the humaneness of thousands of self-help tenant committees, of the quiet dignity of people who (as a Sonderkommando survivor testified) even when standing before the gas chambers never crawled begging for their lives.

As it turned out, the Orthodox Jews would have none of it. Yom Hashoah would necessarily be a day of mourning, sadness and destruction. Passover was a happy day, full of food, family, and assurance of faith. To impose Yom Hashoah on such a day or the festival days following, would utterly negate its character; it would cripple the holiday that was the very heart of Judaism. The Orthodox were ready to accede to a day dedicated totally to the memory of the Holocaust, but they would not allow that day to destroy Passover.

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Earnest Bargaining

For two years [from 1948-50] in the Knesset [the Israeli parliament], the two main antagonists over the commemoration bill blocked each other. The turning point came in late 1950, when earnest bargaining began. 

The ghetto fighters and their allies wanted a special day, as close to 14-15 Nissan as possible [to mark the beginning of the Warsaw ghetto uprising]. Their terminus ad quem [latest acceptable date] was May 16, the date on which Jurgen Stroop, the German general, declared that the ghetto was totally destroyed.

The Orthodox wanted to push the date as far back as possible from Passover–at the least, into the next month of Iyar (the second Hebrew month) so as not to infringe on the prohibitions of mourning and eulogies in the month of Nissan. If the date could be deferred to the month of Iyar, it would fall within the  Sefirat Ha’Omer mourning period [the period between Passover and Shavuot], which would make it less troublingly “innovative” to the current mindset of the halachic authorities.

A Leading Rabbi Holds Fast to Tradition

As the parties jockeyed back and forth, the Orthodox representatives, hoping for some leeway, privately sought out the leading posek (halakhic decisor) of the Orthodox right, a man of towering stature, the Chazon Ish. But the Chazon Ish was unyielding; it was prohibited to disrupt the joy of Nissan with any such public mourning. In effect, the Chazon Ish ruled that not the slightest hair on the head of tradition could be touched for the sake of remembering the Holocaust. The inherited practice was unaffected by historical experience; the halakhah and Judaism remained outside of history, untouched by the flux of time or the sledgehammer blows of the Holocaust.

The Labor Zionist establishment provided the “swing” vote that decided the outcome. They agreed with the Orthodox that Passover should be spared, and they felt that Holocaust Commemoration Day should precede Israel Independence Day, which occurred on the fifth of Iyar.

Reaching A Compromise

Finally, after much negotiating and sparring, the deal was struck (there were even rumors of job trading and other “payoffs” to obtain the necessary agreement, although a number of the key negotiators deny that story to this day). As close to Passover as possible turned out to be 27 Nissan.

For the Orthodox, this was a breach of the unmitigated joyfulness of the month. Setting this date for mourning directly violated a halakhic tradition, albeit a minor one. Indeed, the right-wing Orthodox were so unhappy that they have never accepted this date. (In the late 1980s, elements of the Chasidic and Agudas Israel communities began to participate in Yom Hashoah commemorations in New York City.) There could be no “compromise” of a jot or tittle of the halakhah. To somewhat assuage their feelings, the Orthodox were granted a further concession: If the memorial date fell on Friday or Saturday, it would be postponed until Sunday.

No one was satisfied with the outcome. The Orthodox were unhappy because they had been forced to accept an official day that incorporated a violation of the halakhah. The fighters were unhappy because the commemoration was not on the day of the uprising. There was no significant event or special association with 27 Nissan, and thanks to the Shabbat protection, the memorial day was not even fixed on the same date every year. But the overall pressures to create a memorial day could no longer be denied. On April 12, 1951, the Knesset declared 27 Nissan as Yom Hashoah U’Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day). The day was soon referred to as Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah (Devastation [Holocaust] and Heroism Day). In 1953, the memorial authority was established and named Reshut Zikkaron Yad Vashem (Memory and Memorial Authority).

The truth is that all through the fifties, the day was neglected. Not until 1959 did the Knesset legislate a national public commemoration of the day; two years later it passed a law closing all public entertainment on that day.

Why This Was the Right Decision

Why is 27 Nissan the right day for Yom Hashoah? Had the fighters/partisans gotten their way and 15 Nissan been chosen for the commemoration, this coincidence would have negated the Passover holiday; the joy of Exodus, as it were, would have been buried under the ashes of Auschwitz. Impressing the total experience of destruction on the very day of national liberation would constitute a statement that hope is overwhelmed; redemption has been defeated by catastrophe. In effect, the Nazis would have gained a posthumous victory; their assault on Passover finally would have succeeded.

Furthermore, the message would have been that identification should be made only with the fighters; all the other Jews in the Holocaust were a source of shame, their deaths best played down or forgotten. The implication would have been that the overwhelming might of the Nazis that crushed the victims and killed them beyond their capacity to resist or respond had robbed their deaths of dignity and meaning.

Martyrdom Matters

This judgment would have been a triumph of Western values over the classic Jewish concepts of Kiddush HaShem (sanctification of God’s name) through martyrdom. The idea that death is meaningful only through resistance is a plausible one, but it had already been judged during the Holocaust to be wrong.

As the full extent of the Holocaust revealed itself to the captive Jews of Europe, many recognized that the concept of Kiddush HaShem, martyrdom for God’s sake, might lose its significance. In the Middle Ages, Jewish martyrs had the choice of converting to Christianity and saving their lives or of consciously offering their lives rather than abandoning their God and Torah. In many cases, they had the chance to publicly witness their faithfulness and to state their defiance of those who sought to intimidate them into betrayal.

Kiddush HaShem during the Holocaust

During the Holocaust, however, the Nazis gave no choice. All Jews were killed whatever their intention, practice, or desire. Assimilated Jews and even Jews converted to Christianity were killed. Then what possible connection could there be between the nobility of martyrdom and involuntary death for a cause one does not believe in? Can this be the Nazis’ final triumph, that mass death robs all death of meaning? These questions were posed to Rabbi Menachem Ziemba of Warsaw and to other rabbis.

Rabbi Ziemba and the other rabbis knew better. They ruled that any Jew who was killed because he or she was Jewish was considered to have performed Kiddush HaShem. The truth underlying this ruling is that every Jew carries the covenant in his or her very existence. Whatever the religious behavior or commitment, a Jew’s existence alone is witness to God and covenant.

As long as one Jew is alive, all the associations and testimony of the tradition are summoned up: One God, Messiah-is-not-yet-come, ultimately-we-shall-see-the-triumph-of-life. For this reason, the Nazis sought to destroy every last Jew. Therefore, chosen or not, each death was a statement fraught with meaning. The very need to kill the Jews is, in a way, a statement of how powerful is the message they still radiate.

Mourning All Jewish Victims

A commemoration day on 15 Nissan, defined by armed resistance, would have been a betrayal of this truth of Jewish existence and death in the Holocaust. Pushed off for two weeks, the connection to armed revolt attenuated and obscured, Yom Hashoah became a day of mourning for all Jews who died. The modern bias for intentionality notwithstanding, despite the demand for overtly expressed defiance, all Jews who died in the Holocaust are martyrs; all witnessed with their lives and deaths.

In fact, the Holocaust is increasingly revealed as the fundamental watershed in Jewish and human history after which nothing will ever be the same. It is one of those reorienting moments of Jewish history and religion when basic conceptions of God, of humanity, and of Jewish destiny shift.

Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut

As the commemoration day now stands, Passover joy is shadowed by Yom Hashoah. In effect, Passover is wounded but not destroyed, which is the truth witnessed by Jewish life after the catastrophe. Wounding but not destroying Passover is another way of saying the covenant is broken but not defeated or replaced.

Had the Orthodox gotten their way in the final negotiations, Yom Hashoah would have been deferred to the month of Iyar or beyond. Had that happened, there would have been no connection between Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut. But, in fact, Yom Ha’atzmaut is the fundamental response to Yom Hashoah.

Now Yom Hashoah occurs one week away from Yom Ha’atzmaut, and nothing could more profoundly capture the fundamental relationship of Holocaust and Israel than that positioning. The State of Israel is not a reward or a product or an exchange for the Holocaust; it is a response. The Jewish people responded to the total assault of death by an incredible outpouring of life. The survivors came and rebuilt their lives. Jewish life was made precious again. The great biblical symbol that, according to the prophets, would some day prove that the covenant had endured is the reestablishment and repopulation of the land of Israel.

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