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ABSTRACT
The Israeli discourse has always reflected a tendency to ground Holocaust memory in a particularistic perspective. This perspective involves a disproportionate focus on the suffering of the Jewish people and exclusion of any consideration of the suffering of other peoples, especially the Palestinians. The present article emphasizes that this approach leads to an artificial severance of the Holocaust from an issue that is integral to its historic development: the violation of human rights. The Holocaust could not have occurred without the license and justification for violating human rights; indeed, the Holocaust is, ultimately, an extreme manifestation of the violation of human rights. The present article highlights that in the last decade the Israeli tendency to detach the Holocaust from education about human rights has been justified in the academic literature produced elsewhere in the world. But whereas in Israel the divorce of the concept of human rights from Holocaust education has led to apathy about the violation of the Palestinians’ rights and consequently to the perpetuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, now, paradoxically, the conflict and the infringement of the Palestinians’ rights have made it more difficult for those outside Israel to write about the Holocaust in the context of human rights.
The article assumes that the suppression of the historical link between the Holocaust and the violations of human rights that preceded the mass murder of the Jews deprives students of the ability to understand the repressive and destructive potential of modern political systems and of the human beings who live and operate within them. At the same time, this educational tendency also leaves them ignorant of the crystallization of the most significant emancipatory achievement of modern times: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The article concludes that it is necessary to pursue qualitative research into how Holocaust education in Israel affects Israelis’ perception of the Other, and especially the Palestinian. It also recommends a study of the extent to which the overtones of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the literature influences the severance of Holocaust from education about human rights outside Israel as well.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Noga Wolff is an independent scholar who teaches at the College for Academic Studies, Or Yehuda, Israel. Her articles and book reviews have been published in various academic journals such as the Journal of Political Ideologies (2015), German Politics and Society (2014), Yad Vashem Studies (2013), Zion (2013), and Yalkut Moreshet le-Kheker ha-Shoah ve-ha-Antishemiyut (2012).
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Zimmermann. “What is the Holocaust?” 46.
3 Shiman and Fernekes, “The Holocaust, and Democratic Citizenship Education”; Wogenstein, “Holocaust Education and Human Rights: A Response.”
4 Levy and Sznaider, The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age; Wogenstein, “Holocaust Education.”
5 Alexander, “The Social Construction of Moral Universals.”
6 For an extensive survey of human rights and Holocaust education, see Shiman and Fernekes, “The Holocaust.”
7 Sheftel and Zembrzycki, “Professionalizing Survival: The Politics of Public Memory.”
8 Mihr, “Why Holocaust Education,” 526–7.
9 Ibid., 527.
10 Ibid.
11 Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair.
12 Zimmermann. Germans against Germans, 190 (Hebrew).
13 Mihr, “Why Holocaust Education,” 538.
14 Kingston, “The Rise of Human Rights Education,” 201.
15 Novick, The Holocaust in American Life.
16 Kingston, “The Rise of Human Rights Education,” 101.
17 Sheftel and Zembrzycki, “Professionalizing Survival,” 222.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., 223.
20 Cohen, “Educational Dark Tourism,” 200.
25 18th Knesset, 4th Session, Minutes of the Meeting of the State Control Committee, Jan. 2, 2012.
27 See the statements about these programs at the following: Yad Vashem website, http://education.yadvashem.org/yodalef-yodbet/index.asp; Education Ministry website, http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/Moe/Shoa/Rezional.htm; on the IDF's Witnesses in Uniform program, https://www.idf.il/media/30151/kitsurhatfisa.pdf.
28 http://www.gfh.org.il/eng/?CategoryID=439 (accessed 28 Nov. 2018).
29 Am-Ad, “Director of the Ghetto Fighters’ Museum: Reduce the Pathos in Holocaust Day Ceremonies.” Ha’aretz, April 26, 2016. http://www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/.premium-1.2926554.
30 Israel State Comptroller, Education for Co-Existence and the Prevention of Racism. http://www.mevaker.gov.il/he/Reports/Report_545/92be6185-dbc9-44d9-8c97-98eead865fab/Life-together_Final_preview.pdf.
31 Ibid.
32 Shulman, “The Last of the Tzaddiks.” For the full text (in English) of Israel's Declaration of Independence, see http://stateofisrael.com/declaration.
33 State Comptroller, Education for Co-Existence, 9. http://www.mevaker.gov.il/he/Reports/Report_545/92be6185-dbc9-44d9-8c97-98eead865fab/Life-together_Final_preview.pdf?aspx.
34 Israeli Democracy Index, 118. https://en.idi.org.il/media/3585/democracy_index_2015_eng.pdf.
35 See the organization's website: https://leava.co.il/%d7%94%d7%a9%d7%aa%d7%92%d7%a2%d7%a0%d7%95-%d7%9c%d7%97%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%a8-%d7%97%d7%99%d7%99%d7%9c-%d7%a9%d7%a6%d7%a2%d7%a7-%d7%99%d7%a9-%d7%9c%d7%aa%d7%aa-%d7%9c%d7%95-%d7%aa%d7%a2%d7%95%d7%93/.
37 Findings of a survey of teenagers’ views of democracy, Smith Research Institute, May 2015. Note that these surveys were conducted before the Palestinian violence in the autumn of 2015 that is sometimes referred to as the “Third Intifada.” http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/698/146.html.
38 For an up-to-date report on radical rightwing violence, see https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/.premium-1.6014424.
39 Halperin, “Teachers’ and Parents’ Attitude,” 16. http://lautmaneduforum.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Final-study-Discussion-of-Teachers-Dispute.pdf.
40 State Comptroller, Education for Co-Existence, 2.
41 The quote is from Aharon Barak, A Judge in a Democratic Society (Hebrew).
42 Segal, “Accounts and Lessons Have No Age,” Ha’aretz, April 12, 2010 (Hebrew). https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1197023.
43 Shehori, “Memories of Democracy Square,” Ha’aretz, June 25, 2001 (Hebrew).
44 Ibid.
45 Yaron Idan, interviewed by Rotem Starkman and Lior Datal, “‘Competition: Who Will Get the Pupils to Cry More?’ What Your Children Really Go Through in Poland,” Ha’aretz, May 4, 2016. https://www.themarker.com/markerweek/1.2934434 (Hebrew).
46 Goldberg, “The ‘Jewish Narrative’.”
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid., 193–4, 201, 203.
49 Scientific Advisory Committee of Yad Vashem.
50 Scientific Advisory Committee of Yad Vashem.
51 Evron, “The Holocaust: A Danger to the Nation.” (Hebrew).
52 Evron, “The Holocaust: Learning the Wrong Lessons.”
53 Ibid., 21.
54 Ibid.
55 Bauer answered Evron in “An Attempt at Clarification,” Itton 77 (Sept.-Oct. 1980) (Heb); Evron replied in “A Clarification to a Clarification,” Itton 77 (Nov.-Dec. 1980) (Heb).
56 Elkana, “The Need to Forget,” Ha’aretz, October 13, 2012. https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1841380; English translation at http://web.ceu.hu/yehuda_the_need_to_forget.pdf
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid.
59 Zuckermann, “The Curse of Forgetting.”
60 The Hebrew word zekhor is the imperative of the verb “to remember.”
61 Zuckermann, “The Curse of Forgetting.”
62 Alpher, “Don't Fast—Forget!” (Hebrew).
63 Zuckermann, “The Curse of Forgetting.”
64 Feldman, Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag; Soen and Davidovitch, “The Experience of the Journey” (Hebrew).
65 Ram, “Memory and Identity” (Hebrew).
66 Naor, “Lessons of the Holocaust.”
67 Blatman, “Yad Vashem was Derelict in its Duties,” Ha’aretz, May 4, 2016. http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/.premium-1.2934280 (Hebrew).
68 Michman and Porat. “Who's Excluding Whom?” Ha’aretz, May 24, 2016. https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/.premium-1.2952747.
69 Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101.
70 Israel Ministry of Education, Director General's Bulletin. http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/applications/mankal/arc/se4bk7_6_10.htm.
71 Ibid.
72 Zimmermann. “What is the Holocaust?” 49.
73 Zuckermann, “If the Extermination Hadn't Happened” (Hebrew).
74 Zuckermann, “The Curse of Forgetting.”
75 Tal, “Violence and the Jew in Nazi Ideology,” 10.
76 Wolff, “How Nationalism Was Used to Repudiate Democracy.”
77 Zuckermann, “If the Extermination Hadn't Happened.”
78 Blatman, “Holocaust Scholarship: Towards a Post-Uniqueness Era,” 23.
79 Ibid., 26
80 Ibid., 38; see also Blatman, “Holocaust Scholarship,” 38.
81 Dowty, “Israeli Foreign Policy and the Jewish Question.”
82 Sela and Kadish, “Israeli and Palestinian Memories”; see also Shapira, “On Silence” (Hebrew).
83 Bar-Tal et al., “The Influence of the Ethos of Conflict on Israeli Jews.”
84 Bar-Tal, “Why Does Fear Override Hope.”
85 Numbers 23:9.
86 Halperin, Emotions in Conflict.
87 Jarymowicz and Bar-Tal, “The Dominance of Fear.”
88 Zimmermann, Die Angst vor dem Frieden: Das israelische Dilemma; Magal, Bar-Tal, and Halperin. “Why is it so Difficult to Motivate people” (Hebrew).
89 Magal, Bar-Tal, and Halperin, “Why is it so Difficult.”
90 Ad-Dabbagh, “Traumatic Erasure, Prejudice and Guilt: The Role of Compassion-resistance in the Middle-East Conflict” (unpublished paper, IPA conference, Boston, July 2015); cited by Marin Kemp, “Collusion as a Defense against Guilt,” 198.
91 Goldberg, “The ‘Jewish Narrative,” 201.
92 Ibid., 206.
93 Ibid.
94 Carmon, “Teaching the Holocaust as a Means of Fostering Values.”