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A Worldwide Message from the Powers' Leaders: Translating Memory into Acts | Israel today

2020-01-24T09:34:08.645Z


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World leaders have moved to Jerusalem to ensure: No more • The command is clear: Recognize the changing nature of anti-Semitism and not just remember, but keep going forward • Old anti-Semitism is not going anywhere - it is still here, appears in its old clothes, and takes on new forms • Interpretation

  • World leaders at the Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem // Photo: IPA

1. "Anti-Semitism is not the problem of the Jews, it is the problem of the other," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech yesterday, explaining in one sentence why they are here. Forty-nine leaders, heads of state and representatives of the royal houses, came to Yad Vashem to promise to remember, to pledge on behalf of their country, on behalf of morality - no more. Not just for us, but for them as well.

This is perhaps the most important achievement of the historic event held yesterday at Yad Vashem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Representatives of the nations of the world gathered in Jerusalem, not just to identify with us, the survivors and survivors, the descendants of the victims, the Jewish people. They went up to Jerusalem to search the depths of morality that could, eight decades ago, save the loss of the human photographer. A drop of morality that, if indeed found, will be able to validate the promise "never again".

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The eye and heart will never be able to get used to the pictures from the darkness of the camps and the extermination. In a documentary screened yesterday, guests were able to look into the victims' eyes. They saw the embarrassed, slightly smiling look of the Jews being led into the unknown, convinced that, perhaps, there was no reason to fear, that this was not Germany, an educated and cultured nation. And here's where the embarrassment will be, and then confusion, and the Jewish face will look terrified. And when reality strikes, the gaze becomes anguished, and then, gradually, becomes indifferent. Then he turned off, the look. We saw it yesterday and cried, alongside today's heroes, survivors and survivors. Together with them we looked straight into yesterday's world. And yesterday's world was looking back at us.

Prince Charles and President Rivlin at Yad Vashem // Photo: AP

2. Because the old anti-Semitism goes nowhere. She is still here, showing up in her old clothes, and taking on new forms. The Holocaust must not be forgotten, the speakers made a commitment. But we do not have the privilege of being innocent. Holocaust survivors and survivors have not yet separated from us (up to 120), and Holocaust deniers do not wait and distribute their ill-health. Like poisonous viruses, these messages are mixed with antisemitic venom, and the decades since the camp's release have known thousands of anti-Semitic hate events.

This must not be forgotten either. Anti-Semitism from the extreme right or from the left, Western or Arab anti-Semitism, Christian or Muslim, anti-Semitism of Jews and anti-Semitism of educated people.

It was the direct and vocal message that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier conveyed, when he confessed that Germany understood the past, but not necessarily the present. When he opened his speech in Hebrew, and congratulated "we were alive and well," one could sense that something deep was internalized. "I cannot say that the Germans have learned from history as hatred spreads," he said with rare courage, turning the imperative into constant concrete when he spoke of "clear antisemitism in the guise of criticism of Israel" or "spirits of evil in new forms."

German President Yad Vashem // Photo: Frank Walter-Steinheimer

"When anti-Semitism raises its head, all kinds of racism and hatred flourish," Macron said. The indifference to anti-Semitism, like its cooperation with it. I admit that I did not like the visit of the President of France to Ramallah by Holocaust denier Abu Mazen. But in his speech yesterday, I heard the Resistance of France, not that of the collaborators.

3. And this is indeed the imperative: not to cooperate with hatred, to translate memory into actions. Recognize the changing nature of anti-Semitism and its new forms, exacerbate punishment and strengthen deterrence. The concern is not unfounded and imagined; It is tangible. In historical terms, the Holocaust happened yesterday. Nazi Germany soon developed into the heart of enlightened, educated and cultured Germany.

But alongside that concern, there is one thing that differentiates yesterday's world from today's world. Rabbi Lowe put it in an exciting way, saying, "My parents don't expect us to remember, but to continue." Just minutes before his speech, one of the Holocaust survivors who attended the event stumbled upon it. He got to his feet with a little help, and insisted on going back to his place alone. That is exactly the message: not only to remember, but to keep going, to continue the great historical movement of Zionism, which was not born in response to the Holocaust, but accepted its full significance.

I was born Jewish and Israeli. My children are second generation in the country. And yesterday at Yad Vashem it was suddenly so obvious that none of it was obvious, that the fight was not over. It is precisely for this reason that we have to acknowledge the nations of the world who sent their best sons to fight evil and rescue from death, and to cherish without cynicism the guests who arrived in Jerusalem yesterday, and help us, at the height of winter storms and political storms, to put things in proportion, and remember where we came from - and why - we continue.

Source: israelhayom

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