Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 5, 2017

A 20-year-old Hasidic woman died of a heroin overdose in Brooklyn last month showing how even an ultra-insular religious community isnt immune to the nations opioid epidemic.

Malky Kleins mother discovered her daughter slumped over in bed and frothing at the mouth around 7:15 p.m. June 24 in their Borough Park home, according to police.

The Jewish volunteer ambulance service Hatzolah was called and medics tried to revive the young woman before taking her to Maimonides Hospital.

But by 8:22 p.m., doctors at Maimonides had pronounced her dead.

Malkys overdose death is not an isolated incident, according to community members.

Were definitely losing more people to drugs theres no question, said Yaakov Behrman, who runs the Crown Heights drug prevention group Operation Survival. Its getting worse in the United States, its getting worse in the world, and its affecting our community.

Zvi Gluck, who works with suicidal and drug-addicted Jewish youth at his Manhattan-based group Amudim, has personally counted 60 opioid-related deaths among the metro areas Orthodox Jews since the start of the year. Twenty of those were Hasidic.

Layala Rauch, 24, a close friend of Malkys, said feelings of isolation are driving heroin use among Hasids. Rauch, who was raised Hasidic but strayed from the sect, said that from a young age, Klein embraced a more mainstream identity that alienated her from her ultra-religious community, getting her kicked out of a conservative religious school in Kensington and landing her at a school for troubled kids in Midwood, where she and others turned to drugs.

This happens to many girls, said Rauch.

Gluck and Behrman argue there is no straight line from Hasidism to addiction.

It pains me when people make it a Hasidic issue, Gluck said. With suicide, it has certainly been among Hasidim that have left the fold. On the addiction side, though, its an equal-opportunity offender.

Behrman blamed a rise in drugs on city streets for the rise in Orthodox and Hasidic overdoses.

In many cases, the families are committed to getting help for their family members. Theyve tried, theyve gone to professional help, attempted to put their child through rehabilitation. But if the kid is addicted and experimenting, there is very little the family can do, he said.

Gluck and Rauch both know Kleins family and agreed the parents did all they could.

The family kept anti-overdose drugs on hand, and Kleins father was the first to administer one during her fateful overdose, according to a Hatzolah first responder.

The parents paid for two years of rehab in California from which Klein had recently returned, Rauch said, adding:

The father and mother stopped at nothing.

Kleins parents did not return requests for comment.

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Heroin has infiltrated the Hasidic community - New York Post

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Posted By simmons on July 5, 2017

Delegation members and participants (from left): Dr. Moshe Shemma, col. res. and executive director of ZDVF; Gabi Ashkenazi, former chief of general staff; and Haim Ronen, executive director of ZVDO. . (photo credit:AYELET GABAI)

An international delegation of CEOs representing the Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans organization arrived in Israel this week to meet with wounded soldiers and raise money for a new rehabilitation facility in Ashdod.

The organizations fundraising efforts are on behalf of the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, which was established in 1949 to provide necessary medical care and rehabilitation for the 6,000 soldiers wounded in the War of Independence.

Today, ZDVO comprehensively treats 51,000 disabled soldiers, from every war and conflict since then, at its four facilities in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, the delegation is raising $34 million for a fifth state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility in Ashdod, to serve nearly 7,000 disabled veterans living near the port city.

According to Ella Levine, national executive director of the US branch of the FIDV, the 13-strong delegation hail from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Britain and France.

We have friends all over the world raising money for the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, and this is the first time that such a delegation and conference was organized by the organization, she said.

Our mission is to meet other colleagues to see what each country is doing to raise money [for the disabled soldiers], exchange ideas, and present our plans to raise the maximum amount of money for the new center in Ashdod.

Its a major, major fundraising effort, she added.

Since arriving on Sunday, the delegation has met with political leaders, including Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as dozens of disabled soldiers in the South who would be served by the Ashdod facility.

The new center is so important because these are people who are blind and in wheelchairs, so for them to get to Jerusalem, or even Beersheba, is almost impossible, she said. When the Ashdod center is built, they will be able to come and get the rehabilitation treatments without having to travel long distances.

Levine noted that maintaining operations at ZAHALs existing four centers costs millions of dollars annually.

The primary goal of our organization and delegation is to maintain the four centers because we are serving 51,000 veterans, and to raise additional funds for the new center in Ashdod, she said.

Levine said that the delegation has been most moved by meeting with disabled veterans in need of rehabilitation services, and listening to each of their unique stories.

For us to be able to meet the people we are serving, whose stories we are telling through our website and PR material... to be there in person to meet a blind man who thanks us for what we are doing to help him is the most rewarding part of this, she said.

I just hope that more people will learn about the work of the organization in the US because its a huge country and the funds needed are huge, so the more people who learn about Friends of Israel Disabled Veterans, the better.

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Int'l delegation visits Israel to raise funds for disabled soldiers - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By richards on July 5, 2017

The following is an edited excerpt of remarks given by Rabbi Lee Buckman during a graduation ceremony at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto.

Tonight is the last time you will be sitting together as a class of 2016. You are a terrific group of students and we are going to miss you.

Before we say lhitraot, I want you to look around at your classmates faces. Take a second. I want you to take note of something truly special about our school.

If you look at each other, you see a microcosm of the Jewish People in its diversity. Some of you are dark skinned. Others are light skinned. Some of you look Sephardi. Others look Ashkenazi. Some of you are Israeli born. Some of you have Russian-speaking parents. Some of you have South African parents. And some of you have parents that come from my country, the one brings us Donald Trump, the U.S.A.

Some of you belong to Orthodox shuls, others belong to Conservative synagogues and some Reform temples. TanenbaumCHAT is a place where the silos come down and the labels vanish.

Its a place where students encounter classmates who are unlike them, and yet everyone studies together, celebrates together, laughs together and lives together.

The Jewish world today is so divided between hawks and doves in Israeli politics, between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, between Orthodox and non-Orthodox, between those in favour of women rabbis and those against.

The Kotel in Jerusalem has once again became a battleground between groups of Jews. Recently, a group that had gotten permission to hold an egalitarian minyan was jostled and harassed by a group of Jews who oppose egalitarianism. It was ugly.

And here in North America, we live in a world where the typical Jew in a Reform temple never meets an Orthodox Jew. And the typical Jew in an Orthodox synagogue never meets a Reform or Conservative Jew. We live in a world where its more likely that a non-Jew will be asked to speak from the synagogue pulpit than a rabbi from another denomination.

When you have no first-hand experience of another persons viewpoint, when you never have a conversation with people who define their Jewish identity differently, you only know each other by stereotypes.

READ: THE BIG MO IN JEWISH EDUCATION COMES AFTER CHAT DEVELOPMENTS

Not so at TanenbaumCHAT. Under one roof at TanenbaumCHAT, you can meet an observant Jew, a questioning Jew, a liberal Jew who dreams of a day when Jews and Arabs will live together in peace and a right-wing Jew who believes that Israel must be strong and on guard against the Arabs every moment of the day and thats just one student!

At TanenbaumCHAT, you have met fellow classmates who observe Shabbat differently, eat differently and pray differently. And sometimes this may have made you feel uncomfortable. But I hope it also taught you to see the world through the eyes of someone else. I hope it helped you understand your own convictions better and that despite our differences, we are part of one faith and one family with one fate.

Let me tell you a brief story about the benefits of first-hand experience with people who hold different ideological or political views. Theres a rivalry thats heating up now in Israeli politics between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former prime minister Ehud Barak. Netanyahu is from the Likkud party and Barak is from Labor. Netanyahus politics are right of centre, and Baraks are left of centre.

The last time Barak challenged Netanyahus candidacy was in 1999. Netanyahu was the incumbent and Barak beat him. Journalists and political commentators had expected it to be one of the dirtiest campaigns in Israeli history. But it wasnt. It was one of the most civil.

The reason for this is that in 1972, there was a Sabena airplane that was hijacked by some Palestinian terrorists who threatened to blow up the plane with all the passengers on board. A brave group of Israeli commandos from Sayeret Matkal, the Israeli equivalent of the American Delta Force, dressed up in overalls and pretended to be airplane mechanics. They charged the plane, rescued the passengers and neutralized the terrorists. The commander was a 30-year-old man named Ehud Barak. And one of the members of that elite unit was a 22-year-old man named Bibi Netanyahu.

When two people risk their lives on a joint mission, theyre not the same again. Its hard to demonize, malign and mock a person who has put his life on the line for you. They dont see each other as Likudniks and Labor, hawks and doves. They see each other as much more than any label can describe: they see each other as human beings complex, conflicted, committed.

Thats the beauty and uniqueness of the TanenbaumCHAT experience. Whether in classes or during extracurricular activities, you have met and have made friends with classmates whose Jewish lives are very different from your own. Youve made friends with classmates who arent necessarily any less passionate or committed, or any less open or more fundamentalist.

Imagine a Jewish world where Jews who interpret our tradition in diverse ways listen to, learn from and honour each other. Imagine a Jewish world where those who affiliate with a movement realize that the biggest danger that faces the Jewish community isnt encountering people they disagree with, but the fact that there are so many Jews who dont want to participate in the conversation at all. Imagine a Jewish world that mirrored the large tent of TanenbaumCHAT. Youve experienced and appreciated that kind of world at TanenbaumCHAT.

Our tradition talks about being a light unto the nations. Sometimes we need to be a light unto the Jewish nation. We need to take the best of ourselves and bring it not to other communities, but to the rest of the Jewish community. Be a light to the Jewish nation. Now, go out and help shape the Jewish community of tomorrow to appreciate and mirror it, too.

Rabbi Lee Buckman is the head of school of TanenbaumCHAT.

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Fostering diversity in the Jewish world - Canadian Jewish News (blog)

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Posted By richards on July 5, 2017

Two politicians of Moroccan ancestry will meet in a runoff to lead Israels Labor Party, an unprecedented showdown in the European-rooted movement thats struggled to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu and reclaim its former standing as the countrys defining force.

Amir Peretz, a former defense minister and labor federation head, will competeMonday against Avi Gabbay, ex-chief executive officer of Israels biggest telecommunications company, for the chance to head Labors slate in the next national election, scheduled for November 2019. Peretz was already talkingWednesday about that next contest.

Photographer: Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

We are getting ready to conclude the campaign, win decisively and become the partys candidate for prime minister, he said in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu should start worrying.

Peretz drew 33 percent of votes in Tuesdays first round, according to results announced by party officials, followed by Gabbay with 27 percent. Incumbent Isaac Herzog came third with 17 percent, losing his post as party chairman. Venture capitalist Erel Margalit, a member of parliament, trailed with 16 percent.

The contest is between Labors old socialist guard and a professional in business management and efficiency, said Mitchell Barak, a Jerusalem-based pollster and former aide to Netanyahu. Its very much a defining moment as to how Labor sees its future.

It offers Peretz, 65, another chance at running for prime minister after he led Labor to second-place in 2006 and entered a government led by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Gabbay, 50, the formerCEO of Bezeq The Israeli Telecommunication Corp., resignedlast year as environmental protection minister under Netanyahu to protest the firing of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.

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Labors roots stretch back well before Israels founding in 1948, and it produced the nations first five prime ministers.Though it grew out of the socialist movement, over time the party came to be seen as elitist and dominated by Israelis of European ancestry. In 1977 it lost power to the conservative Likud Party, which had the support of working-class Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African origin. The last Labor premier was Ehud Barak, who served less than two years and was unseated in 2001.

Barakon Wednesday came out in support of Gabbay, calling him a refreshing change from Israels usual politics, a man who doesnt need gel in his hair or a teleprompter. Peretz belongs to the past decade,Baraksaid in a video on his Facebook page, while Gabbay belongs to the coming decade.

Whoever wins the runoff will represent a radical change from Herzog,an attorney whose grandfather served for decades as Israels Ashkenazi chief rabbi and whose father was the countrys president. Peretz immigrated from Moroccoas a child and got his start in politics as mayor of Sderot, ahardscrabble town in Israels south thats a frequent target of Palestinian rocket attacks.

Gabbay was born in Jerusalem to parents who also arrived from Morocco, but hasnt placed his ancestry at the center of the campaign.

People know where hes from but he doesnt make a big deal about it,a strategy that could help his chances, said Ofer Kenig, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem.Hes known as a serious guy with a lot of business experience and that distinguishes him in the poisonous political climate weve seen in recent years.

What Peretz and Gabbay both lack are the military credentials to reassure Israelis worried about security threats from Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, said Jonathan Rynhold, a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

Labor does not have a candidate who crosses the minimum threshold in terms of security to be a serious threat to Netanyahu, he said.

Peretz pushed Israels development of the Iron Dome defense system that has neutralized missiles from the Gaza Strip, but his performance as defense minister in the 2006 Lebanon War was severely criticized by a government commission and Israelis dont see him as a safe pair of hands,Rynhold said. Gabbay served in the army as an intelligence officer.

Outside of Labor, those jockeying to replace Netanyahu include Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon of theKulanu party and Yair Lapid, a former journalist who founded the opposition Yesh Atid party and served as finance minister in Netanyahus previous government. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, an opponent of Palestinian statehood, alsohas voiced aspirations to become premier.

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Labor Focuses on Ousting Netanyahu as It Heads for Runoff Vote - Bloomberg

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Posted By simmons on July 5, 2017

Start Printed Page 20797 Proclamation 9596 of April 28, 2017 A Proclamation

During Jewish American Heritage Month, we celebrate our Nation's strong American Jewish heritage, rooted in the ancient faith and traditions of the Jewish people. The small band of Dutch Jews who first immigrated in 1654, seeking refuge and religious liberty, brought with them their families, their religion, and their cherished customs, which they have passed on from generation to generation. The moral and ethical code of the Jewish people is inspired by their spiritual vocation of tikkun olamthe charge to repair the world. Through that vocation, the Jewish people have left an indelible mark on American culture. Today, it is manifested in the towering success Jewish people have achieved in America through a unique synthesis of respect for heritage and love of country.

Escaping religious persecution and ethnic violence and seeking political freedom and economic opportunity, American Jews, over centuries, have held firm in the belief that the United States was Di Goldene Medinathe Golden Country. Those who moved here built houses and gardens, raised families, and launched businesses. They have pursued education to advance their mission to make the world a better place. In every aspect of the country's cultural, spiritual, economic, and civic life, American Jews have stood at the forefront of the struggles for human freedom, equality, and dignity, helping to shine a light of hope to people around the globe.

The achievements of American Jews are felt throughout American society and culture, in every field and in every profession. American Jews have built institutions of higher learning, hospitals, and manifold cultural and philanthropic organizations. American Jews have even brought us our greatest superheroesCaptain America, Superman, and Batman. American Jews have composed some of our defining national hymns like God Bless America, timeless musicals like The Sound of Music, and even famous Christmas songs. From Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to Albert Einstein, Richard Rodgers to Irving Berlin, Jerry Siegel to Bill Finger, Mel Brooks to Don Rickles, and Levi Strauss to Elie Wiesel, American Jews have transformed all aspects of American life and continue to enrich the American spirit.

This month, I celebrate with my familyincluding my daughter, Ivanka, my son-in-law, Jared, my grandchildren, and our extended familythe deep spiritual connection that binds, and will always bind, the Jewish people to the United States and its founding principles. We recognize the faith and optimism exemplified by American Jews is what truly makes America The Golden Country, and we express our Nation's gratitude for this great, strong, prosperous, and loving people.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2017 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to celebrate the heritage and contributions of American Jews and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.Start Printed Page 20798

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.

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Federal Register :: Jewish American Heritage Month, 2017

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

The Hindu

Modi makes impromptu visit to grave of Zionism's founder The Hindu Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made an impromptu visit to the grave of Theodor Herzl, who is considered as the founding father of Zionism, at the suggestion of his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Modi, who visited the Yad Vashem ... Modi Visit: How Israel Went From 'Contaminated' by Colonialism to India's Strategic AllyHaaretz As Modi Visits Israel, a Look at the Country's Tumultuous CreationThe Quint Modi in Israel | In 'home away from home', terrorism and technology top focusDaily News & Analysis Livemint -Aljazeera.com all 919 news articles »

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Modi makes impromptu visit to grave of Zionism's founder - The Hindu

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Posted By simmons on July 4, 2017

Jerusalem: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday visited Israel's Yad Vashem memorial and honoured the victims of the Holocaust, among the greatest tragedies in human history as some six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. Modi was accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel's largest Holocaust memorial.

"So that the light of humanity always shines through us. PM pays homage to 6 million lives lost in the Holocaust at Yad Vashem Memorial," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted, along with the pictures of Modi at the Yad Vashem memorial.

The leaders toured the Hall of Names, containing photographs and names of Holocaust victims, and the Children's Memorial and participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.

Following the visit, Netanyahu suggested that he and Modi visit Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodor) Herzl's grave on which Indian Prime Minister Modi agreed.

Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was one of the fathers of modern political Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland.

Yad Vashem started as an organisation in 1953 on the slopes of the Mount of Remembrance near Jerusalem, as a form of reference to future generations, documenting the memory of Holocaust victims and the history of the Jewish people during the tragic time.

The museum occupies over 4,200 square metres - mainly underground - and emphasises the experiences of the individual victims through original artifacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions.

Shaped as a prism penetrating the mountain, the new Yad Vashem opened in 2005. Its architecture sets the atmosphere for the nine chilling galleries of interactive historical displays which present the Holocaust in several ways.

The museum leads into the Hall of Names, which contains more than three million names of Holocaust victims submitted by their families and relatives.

The Holocaust was the killing of nearly six million Jews, including some 1.5 million children, by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Though the persecution of Jews began in 1933, the mass murder was committed during the more than four years of World War II.

On his arrival, Modi was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu along with the top tier of Israel's leadership - known as segel aleph. Modi's three-day visit to Israel is the first by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish state.

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PM Modi Honours Holocaust Victims, Pays Tribute to Zionism Founder - News18

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

As Narendra Modi becomes the first Indian Prime Minister tovisit Israel, there is already a strong cultural relationship between the two countries, and something in Delhi itself that is at the very foundation of thecommunity ofIndian-origin Jews in Israel. Barely four kilometres from the Prime Ministers official residence in New Delhi, is the symbol of Jewish existence in India-- the Judah Hyam Synagogue. It is easy to miss the small building, whichdoes not boast ofelaborate architecture. What is intriguing about the synagogue, however, is a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel guardingthe outside, while insidethere are only ten Jewish families attempting to safeguardtheir dwindling community. The blue cemented structure reflects the 2,000-year-old history of Jews in India, but it is now visited only by the 40 jews left in the city, Israeli diplomats and tourists. On the walls of the building there are names of the people who have donated funds to build it. The synagogue is managed by Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, Rabbi and Honourary Secretary of the Jewish Welfare association. Malekar, who is also a lawyer, has made working for the synagogue his full time job. He recalls the 1961 census when the Jew population was a healthy 30,000. Today there are 6,000 Jews left in India. In Delhi there are only 10 families. It is a micro-minority but a very close-knit community,he says. Before the establishment of the Judah Hyam Synagogue on Humayun Road, Jews in the city used to organise community activities in their homes. During the British-era, Delhi was home to many Jewish viceroys and officers who held prayer services at their residences. The community also hired a place in Bara Tuti Chowk and placed a Torah (religious scroll of the Jews) there to hold prayer meetings. It was in 1930 that the government of India allotted a land for the the synagogue, which was built in 1956. A library that acts as a community hall was also built. Malekar says that India is one of the few countries where Jews havent faced Antisemitism. The only time Jews were victims to a major attack was during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when the Nariman House in Mumbai, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish centre, was taken over by two terrorists and many residents were held hostage.

Survival

Given their numericallyminiscule population, the Jewish community in Delhi has tried to blend in and adapt to the citys culture in order to survive. Delhi mostly has the Bene Israel community of Jews. Over time all of us have blended with the citys culture. Our culture, rituals and even cuisine have evolved with time in harmony with other religions and cultures.The decreasing numbers do not affect prayer meetings and community activities, he says. In order to keep the Jewish values alive among the younger generation, hebrew classes for children are held in the synagogue. The families celebrate all the Jewish festivals together. There is also an inter-faith study centre that gives information on the history of Jews in India. The Synagogue has also tackled orthodoxy and adopted more liberal practices like inter-faith marriages and equal participation of women. There is fanaticism in every religion but we in Delhi have moved away from orthodoxy and have become open to inter-community marriages. I have performed around 50 inter-community marriages and I do not support conversion. In fact the Jewish community resembles a matriarchal set up because we allow children to be Jews even when the mothers are Jewish, Malekar says. The Delhi synagogue has also made the rules of worship more flexible. There is noseparation ofmale and female worshippers. Unlike someother conservative synagogues, women are included while reading the Torah. In order to read the Torah and the Kaddish (hymn) we must have the quorum of 10 men, but I count women for the purpose of quorum. During Bat-Mitzvah (the coming of age ceremony for Jewish girls), when a girl is being ordained, other synagogues do not allow girls to wear the religious shawl and read the Torah but the synagogue in Delhi encourages girls to read portions from the religious text, Malekar Says. Jews from Delhi and other parts of the country started moving back to Israel after the formation of the modern Jewish state. Today there are around 130,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel. But the ones who have stayed back relate more to the Indian culture. Malekar says like him many other Jews in Delhi cannot tolerate the idea of settling in Israel. Israel is in my heart, but India is in my blood, he says. Even if there is one Jew left in India, the light of Judaism should be kept burning.

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Delhi's synagogue, home to the city's 10 remaining Jewish families - WION

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Posted By simmons on July 4, 2017

Synagogue membership 'falls by 20 per cent since 1990', report reveals Jewish Chronicle While the Orthodox middle continues to be squeezed, Charedi communities have more than tripled their share of the synagogue market from four per cent in 1990 to 13 per cent in 2016. Jonathan Boyd, JPR executive director and co-author of the report ...

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Synagogue membership 'falls by 20 per cent since 1990', report reveals - Jewish Chronicle

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

Holocaust denial is an attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Holocaust denial and distortion are forms of antisemitism. They are generally motivated by hatred of Jews and build on the claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests.

These views perpetuate long-standing antisemitic stereotypes, hateful charges that were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Holocaust. Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse all undermine the understanding of history.

The Nazi persecution of the Jews began with hateful words, escalated to discrimination and dehumanization, and culminated in genocide. The consequences for Jews were horrific, but suffering and death was not limited to them. Millions of others were victimized, displaced, forced into slave labor, and murdered. The Holocaust shows that when one group is targeted, all people are vulnerable.

Today, in a world witnessing rising antisemitism, awareness of this fact is critical. A society that tolerates antisemitism is susceptible to other forms of racism, hatred, and oppression.

The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding. Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society, and our goals for the future. Intentionally denying or distorting the historical record threatens communal understanding of how to safeguard democracy and individual rights.

Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse are strategies to reduce perceived public sympathy to Jews, to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israelwhich some believe was created as compensation for Jewish suffering during the Holocaustto plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and to draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints. The Internet, because of its ease of access and dissemination, seeming anonymity, and perceived authority, is now the chief conduit of Holocaust denial.

Key denial assertions are that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred, that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews, and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration and that the diary of Anne Frank is a forgery.

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Holocaust Denial and Distortion United States Holocaust ...

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