Bernie M. Farber, Censor-In-Chief of the Canadian Jewish Congress, has a rather trite piece today in the National Post today about Holocaust Remembrance Day. He is the son of Holocaust survivors, and obviously, growing up as a child of survivors means that every single day is a Holocaust memorial day and I say this with respect-and not to belittle in any way.
Unfortunately, as usual, Bernie's maudlin and self-righteous tone destroys his attempt at gravitas.
And as usual, he appears to never have cracked open a Koran. Perhaps he never will.
I couldn't read his piece this morning because I was afraid I would toss my breakfast, but had a chance to read it this morning.
Here's what I find insulting:
"No words can bring meaning or sense to the Shoah (the Hebrew term for the Holocaust). But commemoration can bring hope to those who survived and those who remember. And in so doing, we can at least show the victims of the Nazi madness that their deaths had some effect on us, caused us to reflect, reconsider and even hope. We must honour those who were lost with forthright action and a commitment to ensure that never again will the demons of the human spirit gain ascendancy -never again will we turn a blind eye to the torment of others."
Holocaust commemoration has become kind of a macabre self-gratification for the organized, mostly religiously unobservant Jewish community.
Prostrating oneself before memorials in Europe, and indeed-even in Israel has become a requisite rite of passage for politicians of all stripes. It gives political leaders a chance to "mourn" the dead Jews-required in the post-Holocaust world, and makes for great photo-ops.
It is also the way that Jews enable our enemies to deny their own disgusting antisemitism, by giving them the ability to say "What me-an antisemite??? I was just at a Holocaust Memorial Day "Celebration".
Did you read that Bernie Farber? You make it possible for our enemies to deny that they want to exterminate us.
Dead Jews >>sort of sad for cameras. "Like."
Live Jews >>not so much.
As for the platitude "Never Again", I really think we have to come up with a better one, because Never Again is meaningless. Genocide happens over and over in human history because humans are capable of being murderous barbarians.
A better Holocaust Memorial Day slogan would be "Over My Dead Body"-because that's what MY answer is to the antisemites that are sad, on a day to day basis, that I breathe air on this earth and that not all of my relatives were shoved into ovens, their ashes scattering over the blood soaked earth of Poland and Germany.
The Canadian Jewish Congress itself turns a blind eye all the time to the suffering of Jews. Under Farber's leadership it cannot, or will not see evil in the Muslims that clearly articulate their wish to kill us all. It spends Jewish communal funds on interfaith gatherings, scholarships for Muslims of Somali origin and promoting the insane censorship bane that words led to the Holocaust.
If words led to the Holocaust, where is the Koran gonna lead us, Bernie?
If anyone wants to honour the victims of the Holocaust, they should first and foremost help survivors to live in a dignified fashion, not having to beg for restitution funds. They should read about the war and know exactly what was done on the killing fields of Europe. They should understand the link to today's jihad, raise moral children and fight back every day.
Want another Holocaust? Want to put me in an oven? Over my dead body.
