As the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked throughout the world on Thursday, a group of rabbis in Europe has come up with an idea that would see local community rabbis teach about the Holocaust in European schools.
The Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE), the group which came up with the idea, has made an official proposal of support to The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research (ITF), an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders' support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally.
“Many European students, whether in high-school or an institute of higher education, are either partially or completely unfamiliar with the Holocaust, Jews or the local Jewish community,” said Rabbi Arye Goldberg, deputy director of the RCE. “In many cases this will result in a negative perception of Jews. The RCE rabbis will be able to represent the Jewish identity and what it means to be a recognizable Jew in Europe today, 65 years after the Holocaust.”
Rabbi Goldberg added that “The lessons of the Holocaust are not for the past but for present and future tolerance and prejudice. If these children meet an open and identifiable Jewish leader from their town and city it will break down barriers and allow for a long-term dialogue.”
As the Holocaust recedes further into history, the RCE said in a statement released on Wednesday, more Europeans are accepting its denial aspects. Taking this into account, along with the strong anti-Semitism in Europe, the RCE said that it believes that meeting a Jewish spiritual and community leader with a personal story would demand attention from the students. Since these are local rabbis, said the RCE, they would also be cognizant of the local dialect, customs and sensitivities and most importantly, history of the region, especially in relation to the Holocaust.
“Before the Holocaust there were over three million Jews in Poland and there were so many Jews in the Greek port of Thessaloniki that they closed the port on the Jewish Sabbath and holidays,” said Rabbi Isak Nachman, Chief Rabbi of Stockholm. “Large parts of European Jewry were openly religious Jews whose lifestyle was an important part of the European fabric. As rabbis, we can paint this picture extremely faithfully.”
RCE board member Rabbi Yitzchak Rubin added that community rabbis are on the frontlines of dealing with current levels of European intolerance. “Many of our rabbis are themselves the children of holocaust survivors and are able to express what the impact of intolerance can have even beyond those directly involved,” Rabbi Rubin said.
Many of the RCE rabbis already visit their local schools and other institutions, but the organization explained that it feels this could be done in a more frequent and proficient manner with ITF backing, as the organization which has a mandate for Holocaust education.