HOLOCAUST EDUCATION ABOUT MORE THAN REMEMBERING
The Toronto Star, Canada
October 28, 2013 Monday
In the statement that introduces this year’s massive program of
Toronto’s Holocaust Education Week starting next Sunday, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper writes that by sharing the stories of the survivors,
“we can remain vigilant in confronting those who propagate messages
of hatred, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.”
When during the Second World War it was possible to help Jews to
escape the Nazis, Canada stood idly by. However, its postwar effort
to provide shelter for survivors has been commendable. Some 30,000
Jews who had lived through the ordeal in various European countries
were brought to these shores and given opportunities to rebuild their
lives. As they and their descendants remember the horrors by seeking
to educate future generations, they also pay tribute to Canada.
Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court expressed it in her
keynote address at a special evening of music and commemoration
to honour Holocaust educators earlier this month in Toronto. As a
child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons’ camp in
Germany, she told her parents’ and her story of loss, resilience,
hope and gratitude.
Support for Holocaust education by the prime minister and his
government is significant and important. It’s also manifest in the
fact that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance with its
31 member states is currently being chaired by Canada in the person
of Mario Silva. He describes his organization as aiming “to ensure
that the lessons of the Holocaust are not forgotten.”
That’s indeed the primary purpose of Holocaust Education Week. Its
agenda is to tell the truth and point to the implications. Many of the
events are being held not in synagogues and Jewish institutions but
in public schools and libraries, colleges and churches. The Toronto
project is considered to be the most ambitious and successful of its
kind in the world.
In view of the government’s understanding of the purpose of Holocaust
education it’s legitimate to see it as a promise that Canada won’t
stand idly by in the face of present and future atrocities.
But some Canadians aren’t convinced, among them members of the Jewish
Refugee Action Network (JRAN). Writing in the Huffington Post, Bernie
Farber, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, speaks for
JRAN when he argues that not since the dark days of the Second World
War, “when Canada became infamous for a refugee policy that purposely
excluded Jews fleeing Eastern Europe,” have we seen such callousness
towards refugees now seeking shelter here.
Today’s victims aren’t Jews but others, among them the Roma. In
Farber’s words refugees are “being denied sanctuary and even basic
health provisions here in Canada.”
Therefore, proud Canadians, including former refugees and their
children, have formed JRAN to plead for those who cannot speak and
stand up for themselves.
Holocaust Education Week is an opportune time to do so. While
expressing their appreciation for the Harper government’s commitment
to commemorate Jewish suffering, many are also urging it to help
alleviate the pain of at least some of today’s countless victims by
enabling them to stay here.
The concern for strangers because, as the Bible has it, “you were
strangers in the land of Egypt,” is the larger message of Holocaust
Education Week. It’s reflected in several of the week’s programs,
such as the commemoration of the Armenian genocide and a documentary
about the plight of the Roma.
A prayer in the Sabbath liturgy of my synagogue asks God to guide
the leaders of our country to be responsive to God’s will “so that
Canada may be to the world an example of justice and compassion.” To
which we should all say: Amen.
Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His
column appears every other week.
From: Baghdasarian