As the Passover holiday receded on the Jewish calendar, public attention turned to Yom Hashoah and Holocaust commemoration. Unfortunately, however, we experienced a renewal of internal Jewish tensions and polarization. Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu articulated the theological lesson that those who suffered through the Holocaust did so as punishment for the sins of Reform Judaism. One week later, a Reform rabbi and father of an Israeli soldier killed in the line of duty, who had previously been asked to recite the memorial prayer for Israel’s Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day), was disinvited because he would not relinquish his right to be called a rabbi. That these incidents occurred at a time of collective Jewish grief only further exposed the degree of internal Jewish intolerance of the Israeli Orthodox Rabbinate.

The issue of assigning theological blame for the Holocaust is by no means new. On the contrary, claiming that suffering results from sin originates as far back as biblical times.

continue reading "The Chief Rabbi, Reform Judaism, and the Holocaust"

Listen: [audio:BaymeEllenson042507.mp3]
Steve Bayme sits down with Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College, to discuss the tenets of Reform Judaism, tikkun olam (”repairing the world”), the role of Israel in American Judaism, and the former Sephardi chief rabbi’s recent indictment of Reform Judaism.

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As the evening shadows fall upon Jerusalem, and Yom HaShoah (the memorial day for the Holocaust, according to the Hebrew date of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943/5703) is ushered in, the official ceremony at Yad Vashem is never free of an internal built-in tension. It is an official, orchestrated act of the State of Israel, with all that this entails — the central role accorded to political leaders, the presence of a military guard of honor, the presentations treading the path of a well-established ritual.

Many young people find themselves somewhat alienated by the formal and forbidding proceedings. And yet there are moments of heartbreaking humanity, as the stories of the six torch-lighters — one for every million murdered — are told in their own words; as young Israelis, singers and choirs, give words and music to the agony and loss; and sometimes, when the words spoken, even by officials, do reach beyond the worn phrases and remind us of our duty to commit to what those terrible years have taught us.

This year there were important new notes in two of the central speeches.

continue reading "In a Place of Shadows: Olmert’s Yad Vashem Speech"

On Hitler’s Birthday, April 20, a group of neo-Nazis will either march through Cincinnati or prepare a lawsuit if their demonstration is not permitted. City leaders should not fall into the trap of trying to draw a line between what seems like competing interests – protecting free speech and articulating a strong community response against hatred. It can do both, and at the same time decrease the likelihood of future marches.

In 1994, an Illinois community was faced with a Ku Klux Klan march, and, rather than try to stop it or counter-protest, it developed “Project Lemonade.” Designed to make something positive out of a bad situation, people pledged money. The longer the rally lasted, the more money people promised. Money went to things the white supremacists would despise the most. It worked, and other communities have now used this approach, funding anti-hate educational initiatives, police training and supporting victims of hate crimes. The neo-Nazis did not have their free speech rights infringed, but their speech became no longer “free.” The more hatred they spewed, the more money actually was raised for positive things.

continue reading "Lemonade for Hitler’s Birthday"

This is the good news: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged as one of the strongest advocates of Israeli security of any European head of state in recent years.

After Germany assumed leadership of the European Union and the Group of Eight in January, Chancellor Merkel revived the Mideast Quartet (the U.S., the EU, Russia and the UN) to bring movement into the nearly defunct Mideast peace process. In early April, on her second visit to the Mideast in two months, Chancellor Merkel warned Iran to stop threatening Israel, made abundantly clear her abhorrence for terrorism, and refused to meet with Palestinian officials who are members or supporters of Hamas.

This is the worrisome news: A Global Scan poll commissioned by the BBC in March 2007, determined that 77 percent of Germans believe that Israel has a negative impact on world affairs. In fact, only 10 percent of Germans believe Israel has a positive impact, scantly more than the new European Union member countries Poland and Hungary.

continue reading "Germany and Israel: Friendship and Criticism"

When I recently asked some friends which chapter of Jewish history should be mandatory knowledge for all Jews, some chose the exodus from Egypt, others the establishment of modern Israel and some the emergence of prophetic Judaism.

I found it odd that no one selected the Holocaust.

Yet the Holocaust is precisely what American Jews have chosen. After all, Holocaust education permeates Jewish school curriculums, Holocaust museums have emerged throughout America, and Yom HaShoah commemorations, like the ones we will have this month, are ever-present. In turn, Jews, for whom Jewish philosophy remains untouchable, turn to the destruction of European Jewry as their dominant historical memory.

continue reading "Holocaust Memory and Jewish Identity"