International Holocaust Day, Berlin, Germany 27.01.24/Assaf Itiel
To our astonishment, we were informed in the last few days that the Ministry of Education decided to "make it easier" for Israeli students, and exempt them from the obligation to learn the history of the Holocaust and the distinctions on this subject, all at the discretion of the schools.
Later it was announced that the Minister of Education was still discussing the matter, and later decided to keep the chapter as part of the compulsory education.
This is the right moment to congratulate the office leaders who decided to change their decision immediately.
The decision makers in this area are well known to me from my many years as a director of high schools in Israel, and I am sure that their intentions were good.
The reasoning for the decision, as described in the publications, is the desire to prevent a meeting of the students' emotions while dealing with the old horrors - shortly after experiencing new horrors.
The children's mental well-being is an issue that should always be before our eyes: both for their safety in the present, both as a mental infrastructure for the educational and learning process, and as a starting point for mental well-being throughout their lives.
On the other hand, the students, especially the older ones, should get used to facing various difficulties in order to be able to do so at any age in the future.
The authority to avoid studying the Holocaust sends a bad message.
A performance commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany / Yoav Itiel
If it was a matter of relief for the children of the Otaf only, it would certainly be possible to accept it.
If it was a directive given to the schools that they should pay attention to the unusual emotional state of certain students and deal with it directly, that would be good.
However, here we are talking about a blanket directive, and the meaning is different.
Why should we deal with a disaster from 80 years ago, while we experienced a "fresh" disaster on October 7 and beyond?
The authority to avoid the tests signals to the schools that it is better that they give the subject only marginal attention: in the upper division, most of the formal studies are intended for obtaining a matriculation certificate.
The omission of a subject from the final exams leads to a radical reduction in the attention of teachers and students alike.
The disaster that befell us in October is similar to the Holocaust in some ways: here, too, Jews were murdered en masse simply because they were Jews, and the crime was committed by an organization full of hatred.
Here too acts of abuse accompanied the mass murder.
Here, too, the attacked Jews were defenseless, and every minute of this kind of experience was to them an eternity.
However, we must check whether it is possible to learn from the Holocaust lessons that are unique to it, ones that cannot be derived from the current event.
If we skip a regular and rigorous study of the events of the Holocaust, we will also avoid learning the lessons intended to improve our future.
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The October disaster is similar to the Holocaust, but there are lessons that can only be learned from it.
Destruction in Kibbutz Bari after October 7/Uri Sela
Only from the Holocaust can our students learn that the haters of Israel are also capable of murdering millions of Jews in one murder operation, up to a third of the entire nation, in 24 countries and 2 continents.
Only from the Holocaust can we learn that persecuted Jews may be defenseless when they are persecuted and murdered not for a few hours, but for years, because they live in exile and not in their national home.
Only from the Holocaust can we learn that extreme tyranny and genocide can grow even out of a nation that was considered the talisman of Western culture and that swam for a few years under a democratic (albeit loose) regime.
Only from the Holocaust survivors living among us can we learn about hope, about the human ability to rise from hell, from murder, from destruction and build new lives, new families and a new country.
We all cherish the life savers in the southern settlements, and apparently they are a new version of the rescuers during the Holocaust.
We will also remember that the Jewish rescuers and others at that time knew that no Jewish army would come to help them.
They acted with their backs against the wall, when they were alone in the world, and it was a heroism that cannot be surpassed.
The obligation to remember the Holocaust only gets stronger in view of October 7.
A house in the Gaza village that was destroyed on October 7/Reuters
Without an orderly and meaningful study of the Holocaust, it will not be possible to seriously discuss these key issues.
In addition to this, there are currently about 120,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel.
The new order of priorities may convey a message to them: you are no longer the center of our attention, and your rights may also be pushed into the corner.
We've heard you to the point of exhaustion for 80 years, and now they want to make way for the new disaster.
We have a great obligation to add to and instill the memory of the events of the Holocaust and its meaning to the current cohorts of students and to all those who will come after them, both this year and in future generations.
The writer is the chairman of Amach - the Israeli Center for Mental and Social Support for Holocaust Survivors and the Second Generation, and the Committee for Honoring the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers in the Holocaust.
In the past he managed secondary schools
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