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Yom HaShoah:
An Affirmation Of Life

RABBI IRVING GREENBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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hy does Yom HaShoah
fall on the 27th of
Nisan on the Hebrew
calendar?
The date of the mourners' day
for the destruction of the Temple
was set on the ninth of Av, the
traditional anniversary of the day
in 70 C.E. when the Romans set
ablaze the Beit HaMikdash, or
Holy Sanctuary. Passover is cel-
ebrated on the 15th of Nisan, the
full moon of the spring month,
the traditional anniversary of the
Israelite Exodus from Egypt.
But no one great catastrophe
in the Holocaust occurred on the
27th of Nisan. In fact, the 27th
of Nisan represents no actual his-
torical anniversary. The place-
ment of Yom HaShoah is the
outcome of pluralism in Jewish
life and a profound philosophical
and religious judgment. Under-
standing the timing is critical to
the proper understanding of Yom
HaShoah.
First, the pluralism. The ini-
tial pressure for a day to com-
memorate the Holocaust came
from the survivors in Israel,
specifically from leaders of the
ghetto fighters, partisans and the
underground resistance to the
Nazis. They came to Israel with
strong connections to the Zionist
leadership that shared their
views. They mourned the de-
struction and were committed to
commemoration.
However, the fighters were de-
termined to remember and hon-
or the uprisings, above all. They
were somewhat embarrassed
that the 6 million victims of the
Shoah did not fight back.
Sad to say, international Jew-
ry — which had failed to do
enough to protest the ongoing
Holocaust — initially reacted by
blaming the victims for not sav-
ing themselves. This temporary
aberration of judgment — which
overlooked the victims' heroic
stand for dignity and preserving
the image of God of every Jew in
the Shoah — eventually passed
as deeper understanding set in.
To the ghetto fighters, the ap-
propriate day of commemoration
was the anniversary of the War-
saw Ghetto uprising — April 19,
1943, or the 15th of Nisan, 5703.
They would remember all the vic-
tims of the Holocaust, but they
wanted to hold up the fighters as
the ideal symbols of Jewry in ex-
tremis.

Rabbi Irving Greenberg is
president of CLAL — The
National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership and
author of "The Jewish Way."

Of course, 15 Nisan is the first
day of the Pesach holiday, the an-
niversary of the Exodus, the core
redemption event of Jewish his-
tory. The representatives of Or-
thodox Jewry strongly objected
to using this date. The heart of
Judaism is its affirmation that
the world will be perfected, that
good will defeat evil, that free-
dom, dignity and justice are the
ultimate birthright of everyone.
To override this holiday of lib-
eration and crush the day be-
neath the weight of woe and
death of the Shoah would con-
stitute surrender of Judaism's
message. It would turn the reli-
gion that chooses life into a com-
memoration of the triumph of
death.
In the political give and take,
the date of Yom HaShoah was
pushed off 12 days. With hind-
sight, we can say that these ob-
jections included another deep
truth. To honor and privilege the
ghetto fighters in this way would

In confronting the
total death in the
Holocaust, the
Jewish people
risked nihilism and
despair but rallied to
increase its
commitment to life.

have constituted a degradation
of the vast majority of victims
who were caught by surprise,
overwhelmed by force, betrayed
by circumstances. Their only pos-
sible heroism was to maintain
their life and relationships and
dignity as best they could in the
face of catastrophe.
Choosing the 27th of Nisan
makes a highly symbolic state-
ment. Traditionally, days of
mourning were excluded from
the month of Nisan because it is
filled with rejoicing and the af-
terglow of the Exodus. By per-
mitting Yom HaShoah to be
scheduled in this 30-day period,
the Orthodox conceded that the
Exodus message is wounded by
the assault of the Shoah. But the
proponents conceded that the Ex-
odus remains the primary Jew-
ish affirmation. Thus the Jewish
consensus spoke through plural-
ism.
The decisive vote was cast by
the Zionist leadership, religious