Source:  ajc wire
Blog of the American Jewish Committee
Holocaust Memory and Jewish Identity

Published by Steve Bayme, April 5th, 2007 in antisemitism, human rights, Holocaust and Jewish identity.

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.

The data concerning the role of Holocaust memory in Jewish identity is staggering. One study reports remembering the Holocaust as the most highly-rated item on a list of components of Jewish identification. In another study, 79 percent of the Conservative movement's college students rate the Holocaust as reflecting the meaning of being an involved Jew. And a Brandeis University study revealed that 53 percent of teens cite the Holocaust as what "being Jewish was about."

This is profound and disturbing. It suggests that we are creating a distorted image of the Jewish past. Jewish history concerns more than Jewish suffering. It contains a story of creativity, community, peoplehood, and, yes, positive relations between Jews and others. Anti-Semitism, to be sure, is a real phenomenon never to be trivialized. But the Holocaust as dominant memory eliminates the importance of say, rabbinic Judaism. It flourished not because of Roman oppression, but because the rabbis of the Talmud had made their peace with Rome, and some even enjoyed friendly relations with Roman rulers.

As we distort the Jewish past, we distort the Jewish present. No society in Diaspora Jewish history has been more welcoming of Jewish participation as the United States. Yet the same above-cited study of American Jewish teens found that remembering the Holocaust and worrying about anti-Semitism constitute the two most critical Jewish priorities in their minds.

This emphasis on the Holocaust has diverted us from critical questions of Jewish continuity and ties to peoplehood - ties that need to be based on Jewish aspiration and hope, rather than fear. And yet, almost every Jewish high school features the Holocaust as central to historical study. By contrast, the other seminal event in modern Jewish history - the birth of Israel - rarely merits adequate attention. So fixated have we become on how Jews died that we have neglected the most critical Jewish achievement of twentieth century history, the rebirth of a strong and secure Jewish state.

We have, unfortunately, become embroiled in an unseemly competition for "victim status", a status which traditional Judaism saw no merit and took no pride. Jews become shrill in their denunciations of President Roosevelt's failure to rescue, while ignoring his achievement of leading America out of her isolationist mindset and, like Winston Churchill, to recognize that Western democracy could never coexist with Hitler's Germany. Similarly, we hang our heads in shame over the Jewish community's failure to rescue, ignoring how little actual influence American Jews exerted over American policy in the 1930s.

To be sure, some focus on the Holocaust is necessary. The Holocaust represents the most horrendous chapter of Jewish, if not of all human, history. Far too many nefarious individuals have sought to deny its proportions or to relativize them as one tragedy among others. We need to rebuke these disturbing voices. But we must also tell the story to the next generation lest we, as theologian Emil Fackenheim constantly warned, "grant Hitler any posthumous victories".

Holocaust history is significant, but needs to be set within the larger context of modern Jewish experience. Building strong Jewish identity depends on Jewish teaching and values rather than the image of terrible things happening to Jews. Nations, like individuals, need to pride themselves on their achievements and successes rather than their defeats.

Steven Bayme is AJC's Director of Contemporary Jewish Life.