The Final Solution
09-15-2004, 10:57 AM
Yad Vashem mulls more activist approach
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
After years of remaining on the sidelines in the global fight against contemporary anti-Semitism, Yad Vashem is slowly moving to play a more active role in what has been dubbed "the new anti-Semitism," while still distancing itself from the very activist approach taken by private American-based Jewish organizations.
As Israel's chief Holocaust institution marks its 50-year anniversary, the hotly debated and still unresolved question - even among Yad Vashem researchers and scholars – is to what extent Yad Vashem should make its voice heard in matters relating to international Jewish and Holocaust-related issues, as well as to issues related to other genocides around the world.
After five decades of focusing almost exclusively on Holocaust remembrance and education, and steering clear of the outside world, Yad Vashem is cautiously and ever-so-slowly, starting to speak out about events going on in the world, while trying to maintain its worldwide pristine reputation as the center for Holocaust research and education.
"You don't only want to grab a headline in the newspaper and preach to the converted," said Yad Vashem's chief spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg, "[because] for us it is more important to be effective and influential," stressing that maintaining the institution's international stature and respect was still of foremost importance.
Following years of maintaining a virtual media silence on foreign events, Yad Vashem has slowly begun to adapt to the global world, issuing sporadic and often highly measured - if not outright tepid - press releases against the most extremist and blatant examples of the "new anti-Semitism," including statements by people like a Portuguese author (who compared the situation in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Auschwitz) a Greek composer (who asserted that the Jews are the root of all evil) and those by the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (who claimed that the Jews rule the world by proxy.)
In recent months, in what critics called a belated move, Yad Vashem has also condemned the mass killings going on in Sudan, having previously lambasted the reported use of gas chambers in North Korea.
"For the most part, Yad Vashem does not get involved in political issues," said Dr. Ephraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose group, in stark contrast to Yad Vashem, has been one of the most outspoken and activist of the motley of international Jewish organizations on Holocaust-related matters.
Zuroff notes that Yad Vashem is trying both to remain "above the fray" and to preserve their objectivity and academic reputation as a research institute, while, in the last couple years, beginning to cautiously weigh in on the most extreme issues.
He added that the critical issue facing Yad Vashem today was almost a Catch 22: play a more active role in a world of increasing Holocaust interest and denial, where their voice would most certainly lend a certain authenticity to the fight, and face tarnishing and jeopardize their stellar apolitical institutional reputation.
"By shouting out over every issue, we would harm the essence of our work of teaching the memory of the Holocaust, especially to the non-Jewish world in Europe," the Yad Vashem spokeswoman said. Even within Yad Vashem, opinions on the hotly debated issue are mixed.
Some, like the chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate - Avner Shalev, view the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe as an expression of decades-old feelings, which were repressed following the Holocaust, while others at Yad Vashem feel that by being outspoken on day-to-day issues would risk politicizing the institution.
As the debate continues within Yad Vashem over its exact role in the years ahead, the Paris-based Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld justified the mostly 'passive role' Israel's chief Holocaust institution has played over the years.
"The task given to Yad Vashem is gigantic and to fight for Israel on the global scale would divert them from what they have to do," Klarsfeld said in a telephone interview from Paris, adding that "such a fight is not for Yad Vashem but for the State of Israel."
"The fact that Yad Vashem is relatively silent does not mean that the State of Israel is silent," the Israel head the Wiesenthal Center noted, adding that "part of the problem is that it is not clear who does what in Israel."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1094700152026&apage=2
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
After years of remaining on the sidelines in the global fight against contemporary anti-Semitism, Yad Vashem is slowly moving to play a more active role in what has been dubbed "the new anti-Semitism," while still distancing itself from the very activist approach taken by private American-based Jewish organizations.
As Israel's chief Holocaust institution marks its 50-year anniversary, the hotly debated and still unresolved question - even among Yad Vashem researchers and scholars – is to what extent Yad Vashem should make its voice heard in matters relating to international Jewish and Holocaust-related issues, as well as to issues related to other genocides around the world.
After five decades of focusing almost exclusively on Holocaust remembrance and education, and steering clear of the outside world, Yad Vashem is cautiously and ever-so-slowly, starting to speak out about events going on in the world, while trying to maintain its worldwide pristine reputation as the center for Holocaust research and education.
"You don't only want to grab a headline in the newspaper and preach to the converted," said Yad Vashem's chief spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg, "[because] for us it is more important to be effective and influential," stressing that maintaining the institution's international stature and respect was still of foremost importance.
Following years of maintaining a virtual media silence on foreign events, Yad Vashem has slowly begun to adapt to the global world, issuing sporadic and often highly measured - if not outright tepid - press releases against the most extremist and blatant examples of the "new anti-Semitism," including statements by people like a Portuguese author (who compared the situation in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Auschwitz) a Greek composer (who asserted that the Jews are the root of all evil) and those by the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (who claimed that the Jews rule the world by proxy.)
In recent months, in what critics called a belated move, Yad Vashem has also condemned the mass killings going on in Sudan, having previously lambasted the reported use of gas chambers in North Korea.
"For the most part, Yad Vashem does not get involved in political issues," said Dr. Ephraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, whose group, in stark contrast to Yad Vashem, has been one of the most outspoken and activist of the motley of international Jewish organizations on Holocaust-related matters.
Zuroff notes that Yad Vashem is trying both to remain "above the fray" and to preserve their objectivity and academic reputation as a research institute, while, in the last couple years, beginning to cautiously weigh in on the most extreme issues.
He added that the critical issue facing Yad Vashem today was almost a Catch 22: play a more active role in a world of increasing Holocaust interest and denial, where their voice would most certainly lend a certain authenticity to the fight, and face tarnishing and jeopardize their stellar apolitical institutional reputation.
"By shouting out over every issue, we would harm the essence of our work of teaching the memory of the Holocaust, especially to the non-Jewish world in Europe," the Yad Vashem spokeswoman said. Even within Yad Vashem, opinions on the hotly debated issue are mixed.
Some, like the chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate - Avner Shalev, view the recent resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe as an expression of decades-old feelings, which were repressed following the Holocaust, while others at Yad Vashem feel that by being outspoken on day-to-day issues would risk politicizing the institution.
As the debate continues within Yad Vashem over its exact role in the years ahead, the Paris-based Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld justified the mostly 'passive role' Israel's chief Holocaust institution has played over the years.
"The task given to Yad Vashem is gigantic and to fight for Israel on the global scale would divert them from what they have to do," Klarsfeld said in a telephone interview from Paris, adding that "such a fight is not for Yad Vashem but for the State of Israel."
"The fact that Yad Vashem is relatively silent does not mean that the State of Israel is silent," the Israel head the Wiesenthal Center noted, adding that "part of the problem is that it is not clear who does what in Israel."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1094700152026&apage=2