DECEMBER 29 • 2022 | 9

ISRAEL from page 8

Winter is Here!
Vinter iz doe
Indroisn is snow.
 
Ich zog: Oy vay iz mir

 
Farmach yeder tir,
Oy, avu can I go?

Vinter iz doe: winter is here
Indroisn: outside
Ich zog: I say
Oy vay iz mir: woe to me
Farmach yeder tir: close every door
avu: where

By Rachel Kapen

guest column
A New Beginning for the 
Zekelman Holocaust Center
T

he lessons of the 
Holocaust have taken 
on greater urgency in 
recent months, among them 
that antisemitism neither began 
nor ended with the Nazi regime. 
Of late, age-old 
stereotypes about 
Jews are reenter-
ing mainstream 
conversation, and 
acts of antisem-
itism are occur-
ring with greater 
frequency nation-
wide and here at home. 
 At the Zekelman Holocaust 
Center (“the Center”), we have 
a critical role to play in creat-
ing a world free from hate. As 
visitors explore the vibrancy of 
European Jewry before 1933, 
and then journey into the abyss 
of the Third Reich’s system of 
dehumanization and extermina-
tion of Jews, they viscerally feel 
what was lost to history: Jewish 
families never raised and a cul-
ture decimated. 
They also learn that the dark-
ness that descended over Europe 

was a result of everyday choices 
made by ordinary Germans 
and their collaborators, from 
the teacher who encouraged 
taunting of Jewish classmates to 
the train engineers who drove 
boxcars filled with Jews. 
 In so learning, visitors under-
stand that each one of us is 
capable of both good and evil, 
and that we have the agency to 
choose between them. As they 
read postcards sent from the 
Krakow Ghetto begging relatives 
in Detroit for Rosh Hashanah 
clothing, learn about the 
Kindertransport and Jews hid-
den by righteous gentiles, visi-
tors to the Center young and old 
make connections to their own 
lives — how do they respond to 
hatred and intolerance in our 
world? 
 We are now in the process of 
a major update to the Center, to 
guide the next generation of vis-
itors through a state-of-the-art 
exhibit informed by best practic-
es in museum education. 
 When our founders opened 
the Holocaust Center in 1984 

as a memorial to the 6 million, 
they could not have anticipated 
the number of interest groups, 
young and old, who walk 
through our doors, including 
the tens of thousands of middle 
and high school students who by 
state law must receive Holocaust 
and genocide education. 
With great forethought and 
intention, we are moving away 
from a perpetrator-centered 
narrative to one that emphasizes 
the impact on the victims of 
history’s greatest crime. As the 
population of Holocaust survi-
vors dwindles, elevating their 
testimonies becomes increas-
ingly important. In the new 
permanent exhibit, the local 
Michigan survivors who settled 
here after the war and contrib-
uted so much to our community 
will rightfully have the first and 
last word. 
 We are also expanding our 
adult education outreach. 
Dozens of professional groups 
from every sector come annu-
ally to the Center for tours and 
trainings with our staff to learn 

about the complicity of corpo-
rate, medical, legal and security 
professionals during World War 
II, providing opportunities for 
these groups to consider what 
sorts of challenges they might 
be faced with today and how to 
respond. 
 Our overarching goal at the 
Center is for everyone to stand 
up to hatred, antisemitism and 
racism, motivated by compas-
sion and care for our fellow 
human beings. With your sup-
port we can continue to educate 
Michigan residents about the 
dangerous consequences of 
intolerance and hate. 
Partner with us as we prepare 
for the future. In the words of 
Jack Gun z”l, a Holocaust sur-
vivor who spoke often at the 
Center, “The world should be a 
better world, not the one I lived 
through.
” 

Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld is CEO of The 

Zekelman Holocaust Center. To learn 

more about the Center’s Comprehensive 

Campaign, visit www.holocaustcenter.

org or call (248) 553-2400.

Rabbi Eli 
Mayerfeld 

Israel disobeys the Geneva 
Conventions against occupa-
tion, Israel has never relocated 
its citizens to the territory of 
another nation.
In short, Israel is one of the 
world’s most moral, enlight-
ened democracies — few 
nations can match its expan-
sive civil rights, legal protec-
tions for minorities, equality 
of liberties and opportunities 
and adherence to interna-
tional law. No wonder the 
EIU 2021 Democracy Index 
ranked Israel the world’s 23rd 
most successful democracy — 

ahead of the U.S., Spain, Italy 
and 139 other nations.
Far from being a white 
colonial nation, an oppres-
sor of Arabs or a violator of 
human rights, Israel is one of 
the freest, most diverse and 
law-abiding countries in the 
world. 

James Sinkinson is president of 

Facts and Logic About the Middle 

East (FLAME), which publishes edu-

cational messages to correct lies 

and misperceptions about Israel 

and its relationship with the United 

States.

