You have invited us. You have warmly welcomed us to your schools and to the halls of public institutions where we met with concerned, committed citizens. (As I am sure you understand, by \u2018we\u2019 I mean myself but also, of course, many other Jews of my generation who have accepted to give testimony as Holocaust survivors.)<\/p>\n
Stunned, you have asked us, \u2018Why on Earth did you not defend yourselves?\u2019 Outraged, you have asked us, \u2018How can this world have allowed such carnage?\u2019 The inhabitants of neighboring countries knew, you would say. They were aware of the colossal industry of death at work just a stone\u2019s throw from their doorsteps. They could have tried to sound the alarm!<\/p>\n
Eminent scholars have shared in our efforts to convey hints of the story that cannot be told. In many cities, well-deserving mayors have organized trips to extermination camps for citizens like yourselves. Upon returning to their homes, many participants in those awareness-raising trips came back home appalled, distraught. Some of the younger ones had a hard time dealing with the emotional storm.<\/p>\n
However, let me be very clear: it was never our intention to pour out our sorrow upon you\u2014far from it. By sharing our experiences, all we wanted was to try and set in motion the kind of knowledge that, if you succeed, turns into awareness.<\/p>\n
We in Italy have just commemorated October 16, 1943, the day when German invaders rounded up the Rome Jewish ghetto. Eighty years have passed since that Black Saturday, and now\u2026 How can it possibly have happened again? How can there have been another October like \u2018that\u2019 October? Another October day when the doors of Jewish homes were torn down violently again. When youngsters were slaughtered with the same targeted violence while partying, and so were babies in the warm bosom of their mothers, children playing with their toys, elderly people full of tormented wisdom. When women were again hunted down as preys.<\/p>\n
We would never have believed it, yet the unspeakable has happened again. And what was the response of the public opinion, of many of those who ask us so often, \u2018Why on Earth did you not defend yourselves?\u2019 Well, now we did defend ourselves. But you have started, or started again, to hate us. You were appalled and horrified at the breaking news, but just for a moment: immediately after that, the \u2018buts,\u2019 the doubts have resurfaced, and the conclusion was arrived at that \u2018it is really Israel\u2019s fault for denying the rights of Palestinian people.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Immediately after that,\u2019 I have written. And not at random: I know full well that this distancing began long before the Jewish government launched its counter-attack on the Gaza Strip. War is always a terrible tragedy, and none of us\u2014Jewish or not\u2014can be spared horror and anguish when watching images of innocent civilians suffering and dying. But should the other side not feel and share the same anguish? How come Israelis\u2014or Jews, as many say cursorily\u2014are now the embodiment of all the world\u2019s evil? How come the marauders of Oct. 7 were heard boasting over their mobile phones, \u2018Hey Mom! I killed 30 Jews:\u2019 Jews, not Israelis. On October 7 all \u2018political\u2019 justifications showed their true face, the hideous face of centuries-old anti-Semitic hatred.<\/p>\n
But this was a small detail to which many in the public were unwilling to pay attention. And as it turns out, this old-new variant of anti-Semitism did not take long to catch on. Let me be very clear: I am not saying that everyone has looked the other way. Thinking minds, persons who base their views upon knowledge, specific studies, and the defense of democratic values, have made their voices heard in large numbers. As far as I am concerned\u2014and believe me, I am not wearing the proverbial rose-colored lenses\u2014no-one I know has been tempted for a split second to take sides with the enemies of the Jewish state. In my circle of acquaintances, we are all aware of Israel\u2019s political errors, but guess what?, even the Jews among us discuss these errors openly all the time. No, when I say \u2018the public\u2019 I mean the large crowds that took to the streets and gathered in schools and universities shouting \u2018I stand with Hamas,\u2019 without seeing (or maybe they did?) that by those four words they were embracing Hamas\u2019 only real goal: \u2018death to Jews.\u2019<\/p>\n
As a consequence, in the days and weeks following Oct. 7 we have seen Israelis and Jews expelled from torchlight processions such as the Peace March, and prevented from taking part in protests against the abuse of women. We have even heard the president of a U. S. university answer, \u2018It depends on the context\u2019 when asked, \u2018Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your rules or code of conduct?\u2019<\/p>\n
This can only mean that the attention you seemed to pay to us in your classrooms, in your halls was not genuine, given the short time it took to evaporate! Perhaps you were in a hurry to espouse the progressive paradigm\u2014to borrow a phrase by Israeli novelist Etgar Keret\u2014whereby you can ignore the arguments and the suffering of the alleged tormentors and decide who is the victim, who the goodies and the baddies are, even among states: and Israel, needless to say, falls into the latter group.<\/p>\n
For all these reasons, I now dare say to you: \u2018You do not deserve our sorrow.\u2019 Sorrow is sacred. Sorrow demands great respect. Failing to understand its deepest meaning amounts to desecrating and belittling your own sorrow. Saying, \u2018Oh, how awful! I am shocked\u2019 won\u2019t do. It won\u2019t help\u2014quite the contrary.<\/p>\n
In past weeks a heated debate has been underway in Jewish circles on how to deal with Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024. Well, it is not easy to take the right stance. Judaism is a faith of study, of doubt, of ceaseless questioning and debating. There is no place for dogmatism in Judaism; each of us has to make their choice, right or wrong. I for one am beset by doubt. True, I have just written that you do not deserve our sorrow, so I should act accordingly. But I can\u2019t. For as a Nobel laureate once said, pessimism is a luxury that a Jew cannot afford.<\/p>\n
So in spite of our limits, in the coming days we will once again visit schools and talk to young people. They will listen to what we try to convey and perhaps take home something after all. Paraphrasing the well-known saying, \u2018Whoever saves a life saves the world,\u2019 I think that whoever helps to save even just one conscience will be able to save the world\u2019s.<\/p>\n
* Lia Levi is an Italian author and journalist. She has devoted much of her literary production to the topic of Holocaust remembrance. Her first book, Una bambina e basta (Just a girl. A True Story of World War II, HarperCollins 2022) was published thirty years ago in Italy and has since become a classic read in schools.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following is an editorial that \u2018Shalom\u2019 is going to publish in its upcoming issue dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":77437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n