A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
If The Zionists Establish It, It Must Be Bad

I recently wrote about the incoherent official charedi line on Israel, according to which strong support for Israel is in, but anything associated with "Zionism" is still shunned.

On Cross-Currents yesterday, Toby Katz wrote a long post about "why we [i.e. charedim] don't do Yom Hashoah." Katz criticized "the Zionists" for being embarrassed by the Holocaust and establishing Yom Hashoah on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She also argued that a special day for Holocaust remembrance is inappropriate, because "we have a date for remembering and grieving and weeping over our losses. That date is Tisha B'Av."

In reality, we also mourn during sefirah for the students of Rabbi Akiva who died, and we observe various fast days to remember tragic events in Jewish history. The only real reason Yom Hashoah is shunned is because of the purported association with secular Zionism.

In a response to Katz, Yaakov Menken, agreeing with her, wrote that "Yom HaShoah was created, and its date selected, by secular Zionists with a clear agenda of their own" and therefore has to be rejected.

It's true that Ben Gurion's government established Yom Hashoah in 1951, and that Ben Gurion and other secular Zionists indeed appeared embarrassed by the Holocaust, believing, shamefully, that the 6 million Jewish victims were essentially "weaklings", to use Katz's term.

But what does any of this have to do with whether Yom Hashoah should be recognized in 2005? The date for Holocaust remembrance is observed by most of the Jewish world, and there are no real halachic problems with recognizing the day, or at least not brashly shunning it.

The truth is, plenty of people who identify as charedi do recognize Yom Hashoah. For example, next year, stop by the modern Orthodox shuls in Boro Park, and you'll find many charedi men and women attending Yom Hashoah programs.

Most of the individuals constituting the charedi world are aware that it's 2005, Ben Gurion is gone, and that the "Zionists" created an imperfect state that nevertheless is a source of pride to both religious and secular and indeed, to both its Jewish and non-Jewish friends. The "Zionist" state is also a place in which thousands of American young men and women head each year for Jewish studies, and overall, its Jewish population is far less secular that their counterparts in the United States.

Unfortunately, too many who purport to speak for the charedi community are still stuck in the past, fighting battles that long ago became irrelevant.
posted on 5/07/2005