Judaism has always been a religion focused on commemoration -- of tyrants overcome, of the deliverance from slavery, of the tenacious survival of the Jewish people. In the modern era, this urge to commemorate often settles on the Holocaust, which many regard as a motivator for fighting current anti-Semitism. Some Jews dwell on the atrocities, stressing the lessons for today. Others have trouble dealing with the awful past, or are embarrassed by it, or say enough already, it's time to move on.
I see this tension in my own family. As a U.S. Army private during World War II, my father was among the liberators of the Dachau concentration camp. At a row of cattle cars, all filled with the mangled bodies of dead Jews, a fellow U.S. soldier turned to my dad and said, "If you're not careful, Zaslow, that's where you'll end up."
The soldier knew my father was Jewish. Was he issuing a threat? A friendly warning? For decades, my dad rarely spoke about the horrors he saw that day in 1945. But lately, he's been obsessed with his memories. He gives Holocaust lectures at schools, and discusses anti-Semitism with anyone who will listen.
My mother wishes he'd let the topic rest. As my dad talks, she often feels overwhelmed with emotion and asks him to stop. She keeps telling him she is living in the present. But truth is, World War II is a painful memory for her, too. Her brother had enlisted in the U.S. military, saying, "I've got to go. They're killing Jews." His B-17 bomber was shot down, his body never found.
Zaslow thinks we can fight assimilation a better way. Rather than focus on the Holocaust as our defining moment, we can remember it while looking to the future:
It might be healing if more Jews moved on from the Holocaust by mastering a middle ground: pressing forward, but not forgetting.
... Some Jews argue that we should focus on the bonds we've built with so many non-Jews, rather than isolated anti-Semitic incidents. In a New Republic article last year on "ethnic panic" among American Jews, author Leon Wieseltier called us "the luckiest Jews who ever lived," adding: "The Jewish genius for worry has served the Jews well, but Hitler is dead."
Do we worry too much? Of course. Are there things to worry about? Of course.
We at Kesher Talk are frequently divided on this problem. I myself have scoffed at excessive sensitivity, decrying anti-semitism where it does not really exist.
And yet, we have seen and shown ample examples of serious incidents. So what is the answer? Do we press forward undaunted or do we keep a wary eye ever open? I don't have a great answer. I do know that, as a Jew, I am safe being such in this country and in the land of my parents (Canada). Aside from these two countries, and the UK, anything goes.
So while I would prefer that the Anti-Defamation League did not play chicken little about anti-semitic data in the U.S., I don't begrudge them their work abroad...
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