We spent $45 million to build a Holocaust museum in Skokie. We built a building with donor’s names on it, and a board to direct it, and parking lots for tour buses, and a website for tickets, and a book shop. So now Jewish children will understand very well how Jews died in the camps. But how we lived as Jews—and how to live as Jews-- this will elude them.
As for non-Jews, on the mall of our nation's captial, there is the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and National Museum of the American Indian, a museum in the United States dedicated to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. And what did the Jewish community choose to build to educate our fellow Americans about the Jewish people? A museum of Jewish American Culture and history?
No. The Jews of America chose to spend nearly $190 million to build a museum about the Holocaust, the eradication of the Jews of Europe. So while Americans who visit our nation's captial can learn about the contributions and sufferings of African Americans and Indigenous Peoples, they will not learn how anything about Jewish contributions to our nation, or what Jewish life is like today in the USA. Dr. Gary Porton said it best: "We teach children how the Greeks thought, how the Romans fought, and how the Jews... died."
Had the Shoah not happened, there would be as many as 32 million Jews in the world today. Yet consider this : while scholars debate about the numbers of Jews in Eretz Yisrael who perished in the Great Revolt against the Roman empire in the year 70 CE, what is not debated is that two generations later, in 132 CE, the Bar Kochba Revolt against had even more devastating effects:
"50 of their most important outposts and 985 of their most famous villages were razed to the ground. 580,000 men were slain in the various raids and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine, disease and fire was past finding out, Thus nearly the whole of Judaea was made desolate."
Most scholars do not think this was an exageration. So had Jerusalem not fallen in 70 and the Bar Kochba revolt not taken place, one million more jews would have made it into the 2nd century in the land of Israel. Average that number through nearly 2000 years of human growth, and there would be another 100 million Jews in the world today.
So which is the event we should be spending more time on? The Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE or the Shoah?
“THE 614th COMMANDMENT”
Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim wrote many books but he is best known for a single phrase, a new commandment. Fackenheim taught that, in addition to the 613 commandments of tradition, Jews should observe a 614th -- not to grant Hitler a posthumous victory in this way:
“We are commanded, first, to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish.
We are commanded, second, to remember in our very guts and bones the martyrs of the holocaust, lest their memory perish.
We are forbidden, thirdly, to deny or despair of God, however much we may have to contend with him or with belief in him, lest Judaism perish.
We are forbidden, finally, to despair of the world as the place which is to become the kingdom of God, lest we help make it a meaningless place in which God is dead or irrelevant and everything is permitted.”
The spring and summer in the jewish calendar
...
season - עוֹנָה ,
Bread? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BzOD-CXFA
Question 1. What was the event that precipitated the
celebration of Yom Yerushalayim?
The dedication of
the Second Temple (515 B.C.E.).
The reunification
of Jerusalem (1967).
The day that the
modern State of Israel was founded (1948).
All of the above.
None of the
above.
Question 2. In modern times, Tu B’av slightly resembles
what holiday in English-speaking countries?
Valentine’s Day
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Veteran’s Day
Question 3. Who do we remember on Yom Hazikaron?
The victims of
the Holocaust.
The victims of
anti-Jewish pogroms throughout history.
The fallen at
Masada.
The soldiers of
Israel's armed forces who have died.
Question 4. What is the National Bible Quiz?
A tournament in
which ultra-Orthodox students vie about Torah and Talmud.
A spelling
bee-like competition of Jewish students from around the world based on the
Tanakh.
A television game
show that culminates on Yom Ha'atzmaut.
A yearly
questionnaire that every Israeli citizen receives in the mail.
Question 5. What is the origin of Tu B'Av?
It was started on
early Israeli kibbutzim as a Zionist attack on Valentine's Day.
It was a
matchmaking day for unmarried women in Temple times.
It was the date of
the the First Zionist Congress.
It was originally
created by JDate and the Israeli government in the 1970’s.
None of the
above.
Question 6. Yom Ha'atzmaut is the anniversary of whose
announcement of the creation of State of Israel?
Moshe Dayan
Golda Meir
David Ben-Gurion
Tzipi Livni
None of the
above.
Question 7. When is Yom Hashoah, in relation to other
holidays on the Jewish calendar?
A week after the
first day of Passover, and a week before Shavuot
A week after the
seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron
A week after the
seventh day of Sukkot, and one day before Simchat Torah
Five days after
Rosh Hashanah, and five days before Yom Kippur
Question 8. On
what three holidays do we read the al hanssim prayer?
Pseach, Sukkot,
and Shauvot
Tisha B’av, Yom Kippur,
and Yom Hashoah
Purim, Channukah, and Lag Beomer
Purim, Channukah,
and Yom Ha’atzmaut
Purim, Channukah,
and Passover
Question 9. How is
Yom Hashoah, commemorated in Israel?
Stores are
closed, as are places of entertainment
Sirens sound
during the day and all traffic stops
Cable TV channels
go off the air
Sad or no music
is played on the radio
Fasting and
meditation
Question 10. Which is not a way that Israelis
celebrate Yom ha atzmaut?
hitting each
other with inflatable hammers
spraying people
with shaving cream
Eating humus,
falefel and pita
fireworks and
barbeques, just like in the USA
taking the day
off
TIEBREAKER Which of the following holidays is ancient, rather
than modern
Yom Ha’Shoah
Memorial Day
Independence day
Jerusalem Day
Tisha B’av
Yom HaShoah: It's Establishment, Controversy and Contemporary Observance (sefaria.org)
Holocaust Scroll | My Jewish Learning
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