Torah for Today: 70th Anniversary of Auschwitz liberation
By Rabbi Naftali Schiff
Last week’s survey by the Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed some 13 percent of Britons believe ‘Jews talk about the Holocaust too much in order to gain sympathy’.
How many times do we hear that we Jews should end our unhealthy obsession with the Holocaust and move on? I have had the privilege of interviewing tens of survivors who, this week 70 years ago were forced on ‘death marches’ through Poland and Germany.
These survivors endured the most horrific experience walking for miles each day, starving in the freezing cold. They knew that failure to keep up meant a bullet in the head or freezing to death by the wayside, so with superhuman strength they kept going.
I will go to any lengths to meet such people. We have immortalised many stories via our Legacy Live and “And you shall tell it to your children” film projects and would like to record many more.
Feel free to view the trailer of our survivor project at https://vimeo.com/94149807 At this point in the year in the Parshat Hashavua we read of another ‘Jewish obsession’; our slavery and subsequent exodus from ancient Egypt.
The exodus occupies a central place in Jewish observance, with many mitzvot being zecher li’yetziat Mitzrayim¸ a commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. Classical Hebrew does not have a word for ‘history’, such that modern Ivrit borrows the term historia. Rather the word that the Torah uses is ‘zikaron’’ – ‘memory’.
Seventy years on is a significant milestone. However, we must not mark it by over obsessing with either the statistics of the six million, current waves of anti-Semitism and a sense of paranoia. Living memory, zechira, is not an obsession with the past, rather constant awareness of something that forms the basis of our identity.
It is the realisation that the past has to impact on both the present and the future. The imperative to record and remember the past is just that. As a nation we were crushed, but not broken, demeaned, yet not vanquished. The Jewish people are currently enduring tough times.
The wounds from the recent terrorist attack in Paris are still fresh. We have to draw strength from those who were liberated from the horrors of Auschwitz and inspiration from those who went on to use their freedom to rebuild proud Jewish homes to create a brighter future for our people.
We are a nation of eternal optimists, whose continued existence is testimony to the commitment and resilience of previous generations. We have much to learn from them.
• Rabbi Naftali Schiff is executive director of JRoots, which inspires Jewish journeys
[polldaddy poll=8579966]
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
