Torah for Christians: Yom HaShoah

TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS

 SEASON THREE    EPISODE FIFTEEN 

YOM HASHOAH

          One week after Passover, Jews worldwide observe a very somber holiday, Yom HoShoah. Yom HaShoah commemorates the Holocaust, and the date set is the anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt during WWII. 

          On this episode of Torah for Christians, we will discuss the meaning of the Holocaust in a Jewish context. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.

          INTRO

          Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.

          Today, we are not talking about specific events during the Holocaust, nor are we talking history. I hope that you have at least a basic understanding of the events of the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of 6.25 million Jews plus millions more Slavs, Roma, homosexuals, Communists, and others whom the Third Reich deemed undesirable. Millions died in the camps while millions more died in the ghettos and villages of the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and other eastern European countries.

          The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19, 1943, on the eve of Passover. Since we would not want to mix such a happy event, such as Passover, with such a sad event, Yom HaShoah, the Israeli Knesset, the Parliament, set the date for one week after the end of Passover.  During the revolt, which lasted longer than the Polish Army held out against the Germans and Soviets, thousands of Jews died as the Nazis systematically went building to building, setting buildings aflame and destroying each one as they passed. Survivors of the revolt were taken to the concentration camps, where few survived. 

          It’s important to note that Jews worldwide look at the Holocaust differently. In the United States, Jews tend to focus on the victims. While he was alive, the Nobel laurate Elie Wiesel personified this view; calling on Americans and indeed the entire world, to remember the victims of the Holocaust. We celebrated the Jewish partisans and those who rebelled – in the Warsaw Ghetto, in the camps and elsewhere – but our focus has been on the victims. That is one reason why there are so many Holocaust museums and memorials in the United States. They are dedicated to memory.

          In Israel, the Israelis also celebrate the dead. Many Israelis, like American Jews, count family members among those who perished. It’s personal. But unlike American Jews, Israelis place greater emphasis on those who rebelled against Nazi rule, often at the cost of their lives. So, it’s no wonder that Israel’s commemoration of the Holocaust would focus on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto even founded a kibbutz on the border of the Gaza Strip. Here, they held off an entire Egyptian tank division in 1948, allowing critical reinforcements to arrive and repel the Egyptian invasion, saving Ashkelon and Tel Aviv.

          The Israeli psyche demands as well that Jews will never again go willingly to the gas chambers; they will fight until there is no fight left – and then fight even more. Israeli history echoes this view; no matter your view on Zionism, one must admit that the Israeli solder quickly became one of the best soldiers in the world because they had no choice – and because Israel did not want to be the place where a second Holocaust happened. The Israelis emulated Mordechai Analewitz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In fact, the kibbutz that held of the Egyptian army was named Yad Mordechai, literally translated as “In memory of Mordechai” Analewicz, that is.

          While often being the target of antisemitism over the years, Jews in America never had to face the horrors of the concentration camps, nor have we ever found our very lives at risk because an enemy army was advancing on our country, intent on throwing every last Jew into the sea. And as the horrors of the Holocaust became known after 1945, anti-Semitism rapidly decreased in the United States. Certainly, there are episodes of anti-Semitism today, and sadly those episodes are rising, yet in spite of that, Jews have become an integral part of American society. Barriers to entry have fallen.

          All we have as American Jews is memory. While Elie Wiesel may be the spokesperson for this view, the real hero to American Jews is Anne Frank, who is kwell-nown in Israel but not as revered as the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. In her famous diary, Anne Frank wrote:

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

          “People are really good at heart.” That phrase is the wonderfully idealistic hope of a teenage girl, even as she was hiding in the secret annex in Amsterdam. But as the American novelist and Professor Dara Horn writes in her book, “People Love Dead Jews,” we don’t think about what happened next. People are really good at heart, Horn writes, until they aren’t. Anne Frank wrote this passage two weeks before someone not really good at heart turned her in to the Nazis. She eventually perished in Auschwitz. We in America forget what happened to her idealism; it perished with her in Auschwitz.

          For Jews worldwide though, the Holocaust is personal, even if we did not experience it first-hand. For example, the parents of my best friend in elementary school had numbers tattooed on their forearms. It was only in the past few years that I realized that they were Holocaust survivors. I didn’t need to know that when I was 5 years old but it’s good to realize now. A good friend and congregant at a former congregation is the son of a Holocaust survivor; he edited his father’s memoirs, which described his experiences in the camps and afterwards. A congregant of mine a few years ago described how he, as a 3-year-old, had to sit on a stool in a closet for a year, hiding from the Nazis. Can you imagine a 3-year-old sitting still, all day, every day, for 3 years? I can’t.

In every large city in America, Jews whose ancestors immigrated in the great migration waves of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries met and interacted with Jews who staggered out of the ruins of Europe and came to rebuild their lives in America. For the most part, they were successful, although understandably, the survivors carried their internal scars and external tattoos with them their entire lives. To American Jews, they are our heroes, entitled to a special place in our community.

But now, the march of time has taken most of the survivors from us. In a few years, there will be no living Holocaust survivors, just as there will be no WWII liberators alive either. Some among the second generation, the children of the survivors, carry on the memories of their parents, like my friend. But some have moved on. And their children, the third generation, live as our children do; the Holocaust is fading as a powerful memory; it has become a point in our history that we study, not experience.

At our Yom Hashoah celebrations, the people who gather are getting older and older; our young do not attend. This does not mean that they are indifferent, they just remember in different ways. Holocaust classes at universities have never been better attended. Movies, books, and plays abound. Whether we watch or read Schindler’s List, Number the Stars or even Jojo Rabbit, the Holocaust permeates our lives as never before. Media is replacing survivors as the primary means of memory.

And Holocaust Museums are rising all over the United States. This is another way that American Jews remember the Holocaust. But even here, the focus of these museums is changing. While these museums tell the story of the Holocaust, they are also slightly shifting their focus to become museums of human rights. In this way, Holocaust museums are telling the story of suffering throughout the world: the Holocaust is central of course, but the also tell the stories of civil rights and indigenous struggles in the United States, the Roma communities in Europe, the Uigyhrs in China, and the Rohinga in Myanmar.

Finally, this is in contrast, as I have stated, to the way that the Holocaust is commemorated in Israel. There, the focus is on the Jewish partisans and the rebels in the ghettos and camps. Instead of Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank, Israelis remember Mordechai Analewicz and his fighters. Israeli museums, like Yad VaShem in Jerusalem, as well as museums elsewhere in the country, remember the camp dead – but also celebrate those who gave their lives fighting the Nazi evil. Both approaches are valid, but they reflect the different experiences that American and Israeli Jews have. 

I want to thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. Please remember to rate and review this, and previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, or other streaming services. You can also like and hear us on Facebook and now, you can subscribe to the podcast on Youtube and read a transcript on Buzzsprout.

On the next episode, we will discuss a happy modern holiday in the Jewish calendar, Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israel Independence Day. We will look at its importance, not just in Israel, obviously, but throughout the Jewish world. As part of this episode, we will discuss the meaning of the modern State of Israel to Jews today.

Finally, I have begun to publish a weekly Torah Study, called Bible Stories They Never Taught You in Religious School. It’s available for free on www.substack.com. You can also sign up on Substack for the newsletter to appear every Friday in your Inbox. You can also find my new column, Wednesday Torah there, where I offer weekly musings about life, the universe and everything.

          Have a wonderful week and remember; Hinei Mah Tov … L’hitra’ot, till we meet again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.