When Jews throughout the world and of every level of observance hear the number Six Million, they don’t hear that it means to refer to the Six Million Dollar Man of TV show fame, or how many people signed up for the Affordable Care Act, their first thought is of those who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Many of the Jews who survived were reluctant to pass on to their children the stories of the horrors they went through. Those survivors are now either dead or in their 90s, 80s and 70s. Their children are in their 60s and some of them are already gone, too. As far as direct experience is concerned, they know what they have been told by their parents and grandparents, if they were told at all, and the rest came from other witnesses, books and movies.
Jews born after May 14, 1948, when Israel was granted partition and became an independent state, have not lived in a world where Jews did not have a home, and do not know what it means not be secure in their place of birth, what it means to be relocated without warning, with no security, everything taken, everything gone.
With the Holocaust receding in time from generation to generation, two prominent rabbis of Bergen County have said it is imperative to remember, imperative to learn and tell the stories of the witnesses, to teach the history of the event and to go beyond that to learn from that terrible experience.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin of Ahavath Torah in Englewood a former president of the Rabbinical Council Of America said “One of the most important things we’re learned is the absolute importance of the State of Israel, of having a place that not is not only is our home and that gives us a sense of pride and belonging. We should never be in a world again without that. That’s one of the most important lessons.”
Another important lesson, Rabbi Goldin said, is that “We should listen to what our enemies say and believe them. When Iran says they want to destroy Israel and the world says that’s just hyperbole, we should remember we weren’t willing to believe when Hitler wanted to destroy us either.”
The rabbi said, “We now live in a world where the worst of our nightmares have proven to be possible. We should never believe in their impossibility again. When your enemies say something, take it seriously and protect yourself and don’t put yourself in a position of vulnerability again.”
Another lesson we learned, said Goldin is the importance of activism for Jews throughout the world. “We should never ignore the needs of our brothers and sisters anywhere because no Jew should ever feel alone as the victims of the Holocaust felt.”
While these lessons appear of a more secular nature, Golden said, “We have also learned the importance of each Jewish soul. Every Jewish child is that much more precious now because of those that we lost. We have to respect other Jews whose opinions differ from ours and stop the sinat chinom that divides us from each other, because those divisions do not help our survival.
“We should protect our own and recognize the importance of our survival and we have to oppose evil. If that means we have to oppose people who are doing evil, yes, we have to oppose them. I don’t see the two as contradictory. I don’t think we should be that benevolent that if people are trying to destroy us we shouldn’t respond with our own defense.”
In 1999, Rabbi Goldin joined a group of sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors (2Gs—for Second Generation) on a trip to Macedonia during the height of the war between Muslims and Christians in Serbia and Kosovo (the one led by Slobodan Milosevic), in order to ease the plight of the refugees who were tossed out of their homes in ways that were reminiscent of Hitler’s mobile killing troops. “I remember sitting around a table, and everyone at the table was Second Generation, except me. I am the son of parents who were here in America. We asked each other why we were going. And there was one particular answer that made a very deep impression on me. A woman said, ‘All my life I have heard about righteous gentiles, and I want to be a righteous Jew.’”
These lessons are of what we should remember and do, but Rabbi Goldin went on to address how we should do this. “Our mission is what it’s always been, to sanctify God’s name by being partners with him. We should be concerned about victims anywhere, Jewish, non-Jewish. My point is that in addition to standing up for our own and knowing the importance of Israel, it is also important for us to recognize that injustice to anyone is something that we must oppose with all our strength. Having been victims of grave injustice, we should be at the forefront of fighting for justice for those who are suffering from it around the world. We should not allow it to occur.”
Rabbi Benjamin Yudin of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Fairlawn is an instructor of Talmud, Bible and Jewish Law at the Mechina program of the James Striar School of Yeshiva University where he formerly served as dean. He said “We should look at it from many perspectives, man to man and man to God.”
On the man to man perspective, Rabbi Yudin said the Holocaust brought out the worst in Man, but also, many times, the best in Man. Of those who wanted to exterminate the Jews, “it brought out the worst. At the same time there are so many stories of how Jews treated one another in the camps. Case in point, six men and one wooden bed, they were thrown one blanket. The one who caught the blanket could very well have said, ‘This is mine, sorry guys,’ but he shared it with the others.” He said “From the Holocaust we have learned our ability to demonstrate kindness and compassion even under the most horrific of conditions. I think this is very important.”
An aide to remembering and teaching, said Rabbi Yudin, are the lessons learned from the tattooed numbers on the arms of the survivors. “Interestingly, when halachic questions were asked about having the numbers removed surgically, most often the answer was no, it was a badge of honor. ‘I’m a Jew and God saved me.’”
He said Holocaust deniers who say it never happened are sacrilegious. “Tt’s blasphemy, It is such an insult to the Six Million who we call Kedoshim (the holy ones), literally sacred and holy. It is very important that we recognize evil when it presents its ugly face.”
By Anne Phyllis Pinzow
