A Vigorous Vote from page 28
Commentary
does so not only through active support of candidates and issues,
but also through heightened Jewish influence overall.
Diverse as we are, Jews still have a political agenda that resonates
in substantive areas such as equal rights and social justice, not just
foreign policy. The agenda includes:
• Religious issues — such as church-and-state separation,
autopsy limits and kosher food fraud.
• Senior issues — such as how we fund Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security; government support for long-term healthcare; pre-
scription drug coverage; and aging-in-place programs (the Jewish
community in Metro Detroit certainly has a high percentage of
elderly).
• Labor issues — such as workplace discrimination because of
ethnicity or gender as well as support for retraining programs for
displaced workers, so important in Michigan.
• Human rights issues — such as European anti-Semitism, Sub-
Saharan Africa genocide and Third World hunger.
• Education issues — such as school lunch nutrition, tuition-fund-
ed school vouchers and support for public education.
• Social issues — such as joining with others in the nonprofit
sector to retain the charitable-gift-tax deduction incentive.
Congressional issues with a Michigan twist include: economic
stimulation to bring jobs and expand business; federal support for
Detroit regional initiatives that strengthen economic and social ties
(such as an Ann Arbor-Metro Airport-Detroit rail line); and devel-
opment of the aerotropolis concept to transform the Metro-Willow
Run airport corridor into an economic engine. All of these issues
have the potential to make Southeast Michigan more attractive for
young professionals, who we desperately need more of.
When Holocaust Analogies Run Amok
Challenges Aplenty
Congress also must maintain the safety net of services for
America's most vulnerable — older adults who are frail, who have
a disability or who are on fixed incomes; the special needs commu-
nity; young families who have lost a breadwinner job or had their
homes foreclosed.
Foremost on the Jewish agenda is an independent, secure,
prosperous Israel with internationally recognized borders and a
peaceful coexistence. This outcome would assure the future Jewish
character of the tiny, courageous country for generations to come.
Specifically regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship, we must:
• Continue security assistance as Israel faces a nuclear-minded
Iran and an uncertain new regime in Egypt as well as the re-arm-
ing of Hamas and Hezbollah.
• Maintain the U.S. role in fragile peace negotiations between
Israel and the Palestinians.
• Avoid the undue force of the United Nations and other interna-
tional networks that are really shams when it comes to legitimate,
fair arbitrating.
The congressional agenda also includes reinforcing the special
and strategic relationship between Israel and America, tenuous at
the moment given the Obama administration's unclear approach to
the West's best ally in the Middle East.
Congress also must be resolute in the fight against global terror-
ism, especially as fomented by Islamic extremists and deceptive
mosques that jeopardize the West, Israel and Jews everywhere; and
be undeterred in upholding such reeds of liberty as religious free-
dom, civil rights, a free press and free speech.
Also, U.S. Supreme Court nominees are always a high priority
Significantly, Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but
vote in far greater proportion than many ethnic groups. Yes, we're
divided on some issues, but we acutely understand the democratic
franchise to form opinions, embrace issues and be part of a vibrant
political process.
In the pepper pot of politics, we Jews certainly matter. In this
presidential election year, don't discount the Jewish community's
capacity to generate congressional results of great efficacy for
America and Israel. ❑
New York/JTA
here was a time when no one living in
Israel needed a reminder of what was
at stake when the Jewish state was
created in 1948 in the aftermath of World War
II and the Nazi Holocaust. Israelis and Jews
the world over knew that the survival
of the Jewish people depended on
the ability to have a home to return
to after our near ruinous encounter
with European anti-Semitism.
There was also a time when the
words "Hitler," "Nazi" and "Gestapo"
were not thrown about recklessly,
when images of the emaciated
inmates of Nazi concentration camps
were a reminder not just to the
Jewish people, but also all the world
of the terrible turn of events that led
to the death of 6 million Jews and
millions of others in the Holocaust.
The uniqueness of the Holocaust was what
made the State of Israel such a powerful
answer to those who had attempted to annihi-
late the Jews. And its memory would ensure
that the mass genocide that befell European
Jewry would never happen again. Indeed, the
message of "Never Again" redefined Jewish
experience and peoplehood in the latter half of
the 20th century.
Shifting Sands
But over time we have found the need to
remind others – and sometimes ourselves – of
the importance of this experience and of the
need to protect its memory from those who
would distort it. That is why we have felt it
necessary to battle efforts to undermine or
trivialize the history of the Holocaust. It is why
we have worked to expose Holocaust deniers.
And it is why we repeatedly speak out when
the Holocaust becomes grist for inappropri-
ate comparisons, or when terminology such as
"Nazi" or "Hitler" are misused to wage political
attacks or are trivialized in-popular culture.
Yet never did I think that we would have to
speak out about the abject trivialization of the
Holocaust by a group of Jews living in Israel.
But that is exactly what happened in December
when a group of haredi Orthodox protested
following efforts by secular Israelis to roll
back gender segregation on some bus lines by
dressing up in concentration camp garb and
wearing yellow Stars of David inscribed with
the word "Jude."
The scene in Jerusalem square was both an
aberration and an outrage. This was blatant,
in-your-face Holocaust trivialization on a level
that until now we have rarely witnessed in
Israeli society.
For decades, Israelis and Jews around the
world have worked to protect the memory
of the Holocaust. We built Yad Vashem
in Jerusalem. In the United States, we
founded the Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington. Today, there's even a Holocaust
memorial in Berlin, Germany.
We worked hard with like-minded righteous
gentiles and governments to protect and pre-
serve the sites in Europe most closely associ-
ated with the Shoah, including the concentra-
tion camps, the deportation sites,
the mass graves and the evidence
of once-thriving Jewish communi-
ties. And we created and stressed
educational efforts, such as Echoes
and Reflections – the multimedia
Holocaust curriculum developed by
the Anti-Defamation League in part-
nership with Yad Vashem and the
USC Shoah Foundation Institute – to
ensure that the lessons of the Shoah
are passed on to future generations.
We also battled efforts to under-
mine or trivialize the history and
memory of the Holocaust. The most pernicious
form was Holocaust denial, a form of anti-Sem-
itism. But while the deniers remain mostly on
the fringes of society, we have found ourselves
increasingly engaged in a battle against a more
subtle form of trivialization borne of ignorance,
forgetfulness and carelessness about truth and
memory.
In Perspective
At a time when the trivialization of the
Holocaust is booming around the world, it is
now becoming apparent that we also need to
do a better job of reminding ourselves and our
children of the importance of remembrance
and of protecting the memory of those who
perished and the honor of those who fought to
defeat the murderous Nazis.
Israelis should no longer refer to other
Israelis as "Nazis." Jewish settlers should
know better than to shout "Nazi" against
Israeli soldiers (there primarily for the settler's
protection) in the West Bank. The fact that
some Israelis refer to the 1967 border between
Israel and the West Bank as "the Auschwitz
border" shows how far removed some Israelis
and Jews have become from the true horrors
of the Shoah.
It is time for those who abuse the memory
of the Holocaust, particularly those in Israel,
to understand that words have consequences.
This was one of the primary lessons of the
Holocaust – that hateful, bigoted words can
lead to violent acts.
Now that 70 years have passed, the danger
is that an overuse of words – and inapt com-
parisons – will contribute to a lessening of the
true impact and meaning of the Holocaust and,
likewise, the memory of one of the significant
reasons why the Jewish State of Israel was
brought into being in the first place. LI
Abraham Foxman is national director of the Anti-
Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor.
February 2 • 2012
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