Holocaust Day Scandals

I have always been conflicted about the response to the Holocaust. As a young boy, I was shocked to see pictorial evidence of how cruel human beings can be to each other.

The horrific massacres of so many Jewish men, women and children, that I used to have nightmares about being shot and thrown into fiery furnaces. I think it’s true to say I was traumatised. And to think that had the air Battle of Britain gone the other way and Hitler had won the war, I would have been murdered in cold blood.

And yet at the same time, I had no interest in going to Germany or to Poland to see the horrific evidence of what had happened. As a student, I was well aware of the silence of the rest of the world and indeed the number of people who were saying that it was an exaggeration on the part of the Jews themselves to further their aggression, to make as much money out of it as they possibly could, and that Jews were responsible for manipulating it to their own ends.

The Holocaust was hardly mentioned outside Jewish circles and even in Israel until the Eichmann Trial in 1961. All of a sudden, it became fashionable to talk about the Holocaust. Holocaust museums and memorials started springing up around the Western world. Large numbers of Jews, particularly in the USA, who had no interest in Judaism as a religion, and had very little Jewishness in their lives, all of a sudden turned to the Holocaust. It became a way of asserting their Jewish identity without having to change their lifestyle in any way or care about the survival of Judaism into the future. However much I appreciated that such institutions were being established and programs of education were being promulgated and Holocaust Memorial days were accepted in principle even by the hypocritical United Nations, I was glad nevertheless that something was being done to keep the memory alive.

Now that antisemitism is back in a significant way and people have no qualms about denying the Holocaust or attacking Jews for making use of it, we’ve reached an inflection point. We now have to decide what our priorities are. I am glad that for the first time I’m hearing points of view that are questioning whether our efforts to tackle antisemitism are worth it, given the fact that it is a disease that grows like some infectious pathology. And when I learnt that the BBC (Bloody British Cowards) had refused to mention Jews on Holocaust Day, as did American Vice President J.D.Vance, and that State Education Systems in the USA, Britain and Europe refuse to teach the Holocaust or deny the Jewish tragedy altogether, I knew something was wrong with how we deal with the issue.

This year, I chose to watch two documentary programs on PBS here in America about the Holocaust. One of them was Elie Wiesel’s “Soul on Fire”, and the other was Simon Schama’s “Holocaust 80 Years On.”  Painful to watch, professionally produced and also available on YouTube. I cannot recommend them both more highly. They brought back the emotional pain and fear of what happened and could happen, despite the misuse of the cliché “Never again.”

So, I wondered how we should react today. And then quite fortuitously, I came across a lecture by Brett Stevens, a well-known, admired and popular journalist and campaigner, entitled “The fight against antisemitism is a mostly wasted effort.” It was given at the 92nd St Y in New York last December. He argued that the fight against antisemitism, which consumes tens of millions of dollars every year in Jewish philanthropy, is a well-meaning but mostly wasted effort, and that we should spend the money and focus our energy elsewhere. The same goes for efforts to improve pro-Israel advocacy.”

“We have vast resources, but we have limited resources, and since Oct. 7, tens of millions of dollars are going to the subject of ‘What are we going to do about antisemitism?’” That’s not how Jewish money should be spent. Efforts such as ensuring that Holocaust education is part of every private school curriculum or universalising the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism are “not working” in the fight against antisemitism. Stephens gave examples such as Tucker Carlson’s influence and popularity, and the statistic that in New York State, 1 in 5 millennials and Gen Zs believe the Jews caused the Holocaust.

Stephens suggested that resources should be directed toward building more Jewish day schools across the country, among other Jewish identity-strengthening initiatives. “We need to focus on Jewish survival. The key to thriving American Jewry is “a recalibration in favour of our community’s needs,” with Jewish day schools and summer camps among the strongest contributors to a strong Jewish identity. The proper defence against Jew hatred is not to prove the haters wrong by outdoing ourselves in feats of altruism, benevolence and achievement. It is to lean into our Jewishness as far as each of us can, irrespective of what anyone else thinks of it.” He also called on American Jews to be proud of Israel. The perpetual apology machine, which is the American Jew trying to stand up for the state of Israel, needs to end.”

Stephens, who came up with the now-widely referenced term “Oct. 8 Jew” one month after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, said he had been wrong with his initial definition, of a Jew “who woke up to discover who our friends are not.” Instead, he said, “the Oct. 8 Jew was the one who woke up trying to remember who he or she truly is.”

I could not have said it better myself.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.