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Opinion The general and private Kaddish day Israel today

2023-01-03T09:34:35.460Z


"General Kaddish Day" means nothing • Even among the religious public the memory of the day is fading • It is mentioned mainly in educational institutions


At the top of a modern building in the center of Warsaw stands a large sign: "The future is already here."

The past (and the present) is less talked about here.

In the brochure distributed by the Polish airline Lot, a marketing page dedicated to the tourist sites in the country stands out.

Under the chapter of the city of Krakow there is a warm recommendation: "You must not miss a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and the salt mines."

This is how salt is sprinkled on the death camps, where more than a million Jews were burned alive, alongside tens of thousands whose self-respect was trampled to the ground.

In the camp itself, only local, Polish guides are allowed to guide.

They received precise instructions about what is allowed to be talked about, but no less - what must be avoided.

If "sensitive" questions were asked regarding the cooperation of some of the local residents (the state of Poland, in its current form, did not exist then), they would try to create detours through diplomatic means or announce that they had "forgotten what the answer was" and they should "find out."

Even after about 80 years, the memory of the Holocaust still touches the most sensitive nerves - political, historical and personal - and reveals deep wounds and scars.  

Indeed, even for the vast majority of Israeli citizens, the "General Kaddish Day" means nothing.

After the establishment of the state, this date was set by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

He was made to fast ten in Tevet, the day the siege began that led to the destruction of the Temple.

This, according to the Jewish tradition, which usually connects and "rolls" days of trouble together and marks them in one common day of remembrance.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin wanted to move the National Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust and Heroism from the 16th of Nisan to Tisha B'Av, but he did not get his wish.

Even among the religious public, the memory of the "General Kaddish Day" is fading.

He is mentioned mainly in educational institutions, and here and there also in tiny memory islands.

Thus, for example, every year at this time members of the Yavneh group gather, even those among them who are not Holocaust survivors or their descendants, and say Kaddish in the central synagogue in Kibbutz for the upliftment of the souls of the dead.

Apart from the historical issues, the issue of preserving the memory of the Holocaust has surfaced and is resurfacing in full force.

On the national and public level, the remembrance of the Holocaust and heroism is celebrated in impressive ceremonies, as well as in mandatory visits to "Yad Vashem" by world leaders who come to Israel.

Indeed, on the personal, experiential, private, intimate level, the memory of the Holocaust is fading.  

As the years go by, the number of Holocaust survivors diminishes, and so surely do the "Kaddish" reciters among them.

Not many years will pass, and the members of the generation whose experience of the Holocaust was burned into their hearts and flesh, literally, will disappear from the landscape of our lives.

The children and grandchildren of the survivors, the members of the second and third generation, are not always able to pass on the legacy.

Sometimes they are not even interested in it.

They prefer, as the sign on the roof of the high tower in Warsaw says, to look forward to the future and not drown in the waters of the past.

It seems appropriate that the "General Kaddish Day" should be another landmark, mainly personal and educational, and perhaps less formal and ceremonial, to promote the preservation of memory and teach its meanings and lessons to the members of the present generation and for the generations to come.

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Source: israelhayom

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