There is one area that I am intransigent on. I do not feel the Torah world has paid enough attention to the holocaust survivor community. I realize that there are many reasons for not participating in events not initiated by the Torah world itself. Many of my own heroes like Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik and my own Rebbe, Rav Aharon, boycotted these events. And even the Klausenberger Rebbe, I’m told did not attend these events. And no one could accuse the Klausenberger Rebbe of not caring. He dedicated much of his life to Holocaust issues.
But I can’t help it. Every time I see a documentary (as I did just, yesterday on PBS) about the holocaust where those black and white archival images of survivors are shown, I get almost physically ill. No matter how many times I’ve seen these images, it is as though I’ve seen them for the first time and I recoil in horror and tears. The response I have is emotional. I admit it. I am normally a very rational person and emotional arguments do not sway me. But I cannot help but be overcome by emotion when I see these images... every single time! And it isn’t because both of my parents and two older brothers lived through it. It is just the sheer horror of seeing so many living human skeletons that are so malnourished that they ultimately die.
And then I think... Why? Not, why did it happen. That is an unanswerable question, although I’ve asked it many times. But why has the Torah world not responded in a better fashion than they have? And it makes me angry. The fact that there are Halachic and Hashkafic problems seems so pale by comparison. The enormity of the holocaust is so beyond description that all arguments seem to fail. In my view the Torah wolrd has to stop having reflexive attitudes to the few remaining elderly survivors and just give them the little support they ask for by attending their memorials and not diminish them by boycott.
And this is true in any instance where the Torah world tries to re-define the holocaust in their own terms, no matter how much more accurate it may seem to them. I remember an article in the Jewish Observer by the great Gadol B’Yisroel, Rav Yitzchak Hutner, ZTL. He objected to the term “holocaust”. He thought a term more descriptive of the events of that period would be “Churban Europe”. That upset me as well. It may be a truer term but it in essence disparages a term that is universally recognized as THE term for what happened then. To change the term well after it has been established as such is wrong in my eyes. This is what survivors call it. That is how they see it. They lived through it. They are the ones who suffered. Respect that term. Let’s not get into questionable semantics.
But the Torah world still uses that term as though the word holocaust doesn’t exist. It’s just another slap in the face to the survivors who do not understand. Why? ...Why insist on that term? What purpose does it serve? What is the greater good?
It has been said that the reason for much of this posturing on the part of the Torah world is the fact that the holocaust has been blown way out of proportion because it is often been referred to as the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people in it’s entire history. That, they say is incorrect. The destruction of the Beis HaMikdash is the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people. But this fails to recognize the enormity of what happened. Without getting into the many reasons, it cannot be minimized and should never be compared to the Churban Beis HaMikdash.
On a spiritual level the Churban Beis HaMikdash was greater. But on a human level it would be impossible to imagine any other time in history where so many Jews were murdered and tortured. The entire Toachacha was lived out by the Jews of Europe. And perhaps equally important is the fact that the events of that time are so recent... so fresh in our memory. And there are so many survivors yet alive... almost all of them elderly. This has to be recognized and those who lived through it respected, not boycotted.
Of course it would be wrong to ask rabbinic leadership to participate in any holocaust rememberance that was anti-Torah in any way. But as I’ve said many times, the memorials I’ve attended do not have an ounce of Kfira in them. Never is a word spoken against Torah, or Mitzvos. Not once. It is all about memorializing loved ones and “never again”. Attending these ceremonies would only elevate them to a level where there could actually have a Torah perspective. Perhaps the founders of Yom HaShoa were rabid anti-Torah people. And perhaps their memorials consisted of K’fira and bashing Torah... I don’t know. If so they were properly boycotted. But I don’t believe that this is what the majority of them consist of today... certainly not the one’s I’ve attended.
In my view, these people should be supported on their day as long as even one of them remains alive. That said, I do not support memorializing this day in perpetuity. That is not necessary, in my view. The memorial should be folded into the Kinos of Tisha B’av. That should be its permanent and proper place.
One final note. Almost as upsetting to me as boycotting Yom HaShoa is the fact that to some Jews, it has become the sum total of their Yiddishkeit. The holocaust has become a religion to them. It is the only thing Jewish they observe and in some cases it is all they think about. This is wrong and should obviously be rejected. Unfortunately these poor souls have lost all perspective along with their Yiddishkeit. It is very sad but they cannot and should not be judged. But that attitude is obviously wrong.
As the Torah world consistently and correctly points out the focus of our daily lives should not be the holocaust but the Torah. And as many have also pointed out the best answer to the holocaust is living our lives as Torah Jews. And we have done that magnificently since the holocaust. More Torah learning now takes place than at any time in history. As a result there are more knowledgeable Jews than ever before. We are indeed a Goy Kadosh. This has been the focus of our educators and although there are many problems in the system, it is in essence the correct approach. The holocaust should never weigh in on our decisions in life. It should not be a motivating factor. But one must never use that as an excuse to boycott a “once a year” event that is so meaningful to the few elderly survivors... religious or not. They deserve better from us.
