The ReMarker | May '22, p.5-6

ISSUES

4

news &

the remarker may 20, 2022

ANTISEMITISM

The Holocaust’s enduring legacy The defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II seemed to many to signal a triumph over antisemitism, but the problem nevertheless persisted. With antisemitic incidents on the rise again, many worry that today’s societies are making the same mistakes as their predecessors.

E

ighty short years ago, agents of Nazi Germany forced Jewish men, women and children onto trains bound for newly-built extermination camps at Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka. The ensuing genocide would bring a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented proportions that marginalized, dehumanized and killed millions of victims — including approximately six million Jewish people. The grim scenes and facts discovered by the Allies after the end of the war shook people across their globes to their very cores and forced them to confront an uncomfortable question: “How could this have happened?”

People and governments across the world contended with that question over the following decades but were unable to reach a consensus other than a promise to never let such a catastrophe happen again. Today, antisemitism seems to be making a resurgence, with anti-Jewish harassment and marginalization surging in frequency.

Some worry that, for a world unable to learn from its mistakes, the old mantra of “never again” is slipping.

Poland, and he eventually decided that America was his future. One of many Holocaust surivors to move to and settle Dallas, Glauben was grateful for the opportunity to find refuge and opportunity in the United States after the horrors of the Holocaust.

“It means I was given a second chance in life by a country that is democratic and treats everyone with respect,” Glauben said. “I was thankful for the liberation, which started my life from a second beginning. It was a country that, by its Statue of Liberty, allowed me to come as an oppressed stranger and become a citizen.”

After moving to Dallas, Glauben made it his mission to tell the story of the Holocaust and make sure that people never forget the human harm done by the genocide.

“I cannot describe the feeling of a youngster that didn’t commit a crime, didn’t do anything bad,” Glauben said, “but I was a member of a religion that somebody didn’t like. And I couldn’t understand how they could do these horrible things to us.”

With the awful Holocaust firmly in our historical rearview, many people see antisemitism as an issue of the past; however, Abosch contends that hate targeted at Jews and Judaism is very much an issue of today.

“Antisemitism definitely exists in Dallas. It exists around the United States, and it exists worldwide,” Abosch-Jacobson said. “Sometimes it takes the form of social exclusion and nasty comments, and other times it takes the form of physical harassment. All you have to do is open up a newspaper or look online to read about Jews being verbally or physically harassed.”

One such attack happened just around the corner Jan. 15 at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, when a man stormed in during a service and took four people hostage, including the synagogue’s Rabbi Charlie CytronWalker. The gunman hoped that he could force the congregants to use their Jewish connections in government to free a friend of his serving an 86-year prison sentence in Fort Worth for attempted murder of American soldiers in Afghanistan.

“He wanted Rabbi Cytron-Walker to call the United States government and have the woman released,” AboschJacobson said. “There are conspiracy theories out there that Jews have tremendous amounts of power, that all they have to do is pick up the phone and call somebody in the government to make something happen. The theory also is that this woman was jailed because, somehow, EXPOSING HATE The Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum’s mission Jews wanted her to be jailed. These are is to show the worst of humanity to bring out the best in it. The museum displays antisemitic propaganda along with historical information about the Holocaust. all part and parcel of larger antisemitic One of the intiatives taken by the Dallas Holocaust conspiracy theories.” and Humans Rights Museum is to catalog the Ethan Granito, a junior at Keller High School, had experiences and stories of local Holocaust survivors. By attended Congregation Beth Israel for many years. When doing this, the museum hopes to personalize stories of he heard of the hostage situation, Granito was stunned struggle and survival that might otherwise seem abstract that his hometown synagogue was at the forefront of an to museum patrons. One story of survival catalogued by attack. the museum is the story of Max Glauben, a Polish Jew “It was really shocking,” Granito said. “Even though who moved to Dallas after the events of World War II. so many antisemitic events happen throughout the “Max Glauben was born in 1928 in Warsaw, Poland. country, you never think that they’re going to be at the After the war broke out in the September of 1939, and the place where you practice your religion.”

Nazis invaded, he and his family were forced to live in The attack at the synagogue might have been the the ghetto until April 19, 1943, when the Warsaw Ghetto most severe attack he has come into contact with, but Uprising began,” Abosch-Jacobson said. “The uprising Granito also sees antisemitism in daily interactions was ultimately put down by the Nazis in May, and Max with his peers. Granito affirms Abosch’s statement that and his family were then rounded up, put on a box antisemitism is alive and well in Texas. car, and shipped to the Majdanek “Being one of the few Jews at my school, it happens Death Camp. There his mother and sometimes,” Granito said. “I would say at least once younger brother were murdered.” every school year I see a major antisemetic act, like a kid After losing his mother and hailing Hitler right in front of me or telling me, ‘You’re brother at Majdanek and losing his the reason why people hate Jews.’ I didn’t share anything father at a labor camp, Glauben about my attacks with the news or the media, so who miraculously managed to survive knows how many other kids are out there getting told until Allied soldiers liberated him. horrible things by their peers and just staying quiet about With no family left, Max Glauben it.”

DR. SARA ABOSCH decided that it was time to leave When Glauben hears of Americans using speech to To prevent the mistakes of human rights disasters like the Holocaust, some organizations have dedicated themselves to preserving the memory of genocides in hopes of fighting hate and prejudice. One such organization, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, makes it their mission to educate Dallas citizens about the worst of humanity.

“Our mission is to teach the history of the Holocaust and to advance human rights and to combat hatred, prejudice and indifference,” Dr. Sara Abosch-Jacobson, Barbara Rabin Chief Education Officer at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, said.

Archival photo of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in southern Poland

perpetuate antisemetism, he encourages Americans to use that very same freedom of speech to stand up for truth in the face of falsehoods like Holocaust denial.

“Thank God that I live in a country that has freedom of speech, assembly and religion,” Glauben said. “I can say that all the people that are listening would know and understand how stupid he or she is by saying that the Holocaust never happened.”

Though Glauben’s testimony ETHAN GRANiTO is certainly valuable in the face of preserving the truth of the past and combating hate and prejudice, it does have one fatal flaw: Glauben’s continued advocacy for acceptance of Jews is threatened by his mortality. When a Holocaust survivor dies, we risk their lived experience dying with them. The truth is that Holocaust victims are becoming rarer as time progresses.

The disaster having happened 80 years ago, it won’t be long before the only survivors left will have been born too late to remember what happened. This grim fact became apparent to the staff of The ReMarker when Glauben unfortunately passed away the week we were to interview him.

Thankfully, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum refuses to sit idly by while our best sources for the Holocaust dwindle in number. Glauben’s quotations here are excerpted not directly from Glauben himself, but from the museum’s “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibit, which uses modern holographic technology and thousands of recorded question and answer responses to ensure that we never forget. “[Glauben] was filmed for the ‘Dimensions in Testimony’ interactive survivor program that was created by the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California,” Abosch-Jacobson said. “He is a permanent part of our Dimensions and Testimony theatre, and students and visitors can continue to interact with him and ask his holographic representation questions.”

Academic institutions, museums, and Holocaust survivors can do a great deal of good in fighting hate, but Abosch recognizes that it ultimately comes down to the common person to prevent a disaster like the Holocaust from happening in the future. Abosch calls on the average person to be an upstander.

“It’s really our hope to inspire upstander behavior in people who visit our museum exhibits,” AboschJacobson said. “Upstanders aren’t necessarily Medal of Honor winners or members of the armed military forces or anything like that. They come from all walks of life.

It’s all kinds of acts — big and small — that what we hope to inspire. Everybody can be an agent for change — everybody can be an upstander.”

STORY Will Spencer, Grayson Redmond, Myles Lowenberg PHOTOS Will Spencer, Courtesy Dallas Human Rights and Holocaust Museum, Creative Commons

NEW AGE Holocaust survivor Max Glabuen’s holographic representation speaks about his time in occupied Poland and in German death camps to an audience of many.

ISSUES

5

news &

the remarker may 20, 2022

ANTiSEMiTiSM

Religious roundtable To find evidence of the continuity of Jews despite their several thousand year battle with persecution, all one has to do is look around campus. The school is home to many Jewish students, some of whom we sat down with to discuss their relationship with Judaism, their religious identity and their experiences with antisemitism.

What does your Jewish faith mean to you?

Jordan Feldman: We’re all very involved in our youth groups, and we’re very passionate about that stuff.

And so we take a lot of the weekends and even for Jacob and I, a lot of the weekdays. It’s a lot of work to help build that youth group, but we wouldn’t even be there without our Judaism. In my belief of Judaism, spirituality has always been a big part of me, and it’s helped me throughout my life.

Jacob Grossfeld: For me, I’ve been like that all my life, going to a Jewish school up until eighth grade and then still being very involved in a youth group since entering high school. It has just been a way for me to connect with other people and have more friends.

JACOB GROSSFELD

David Gersherson: Yeah, same really. Since I can remember I’ve been either going to services on the weekends, or if not, at least going to a BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) event, pretty much every weekend. Every week I’m doing at least something that ties to Judaism. If not Shabbat, then something else.

Why is it important to educate people on the Holocaust?

JF: I didn’t actually know Max Glauben, but I’ve met him a couple times and saw him speak a couple times. It really took a big toll on me when he died because his whole goal was to educate people about the Holocaust and tell his experience. He always talked about how it’s important to remember so you don’t forget. In terms of remembering the events, learning about the Nazis and the Holocaust in history class has put on this bigger perspective, a more worldwide perspective. It further shows that the Holocaust didn’t just affect Jews, it affected many others. As a Jew and knowing how that’s part of our past has been a big part of recognizing Holocaust Remembrance Day where we light a candle for the 6 million people who died. It has just always been something that we’ve been accustomed to doing and what I plan to introduce to my kids and their kids.

still people who don’t believe that the Holocaust has happened.

In what ways can we learn about the Holocaust?

JG: Go to Holocaust museums. There’s one in Dallas, there’s big one in Washington DC and there’s an even bigger one in Israel. I think just going there is extremely helpful. They have great guides who can show you around and teach everything. They have exhibits that put into perspective about the sheer magnitude of the Holocaust. Even just looking online, you could probably find documentaries and videos with actual pictures.

And even though they’re very gruesome, if you’re fine looking at it, that’s a great way to add even more of a perspective as to just how bad it was.

JF: There’s plenty about it in entertainment. You can watch plenty of movies: Schindler’s List, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, or others about the Holocaust that are really enlightening. I especially like Schindler’s List because it talks about this guy, a German officer, who helped thousands of Jews escape. You can really see different people’s perspectives and the harsh rule of the Nazis and what they did to people. The biggest part about remembering is also the fact that there are only a couple thousand survivors left. It’s really important to listen to what they have to say because they’re the last people to have the firsthand experience, and we have to pass their stories onto future generations.

DG: Yeah, in my experience, those types of jokes are not directly to me or people I know necessarily. But every now and then, I’ll see a post on Instagram that has some sort of relation with Judaism, and I’ll just see an offensive comment that makes me think, “Why did you even say that?” It’s frustrating to see that happening.

It seems to be a lot more common now than in the past couple years.

How do you think the Jewish community survived through the antisemitism that still persists in different forms today?

JG: I remember the strong community we had after the hostage situation [in Colleyville, Texas Jan. 15]. There was a service, and everyone around the city showed up.

And the way we were able to show support and prevail through that terrible event was by being there for them together as a community. Also just being there for all my friends was very important. A lot of my friends were scared for their safety, so I was just really happy to be together with them, and we were thankful that we got through it unified.

DG: When antisemitic acts happen, I usually talk to my family about it. We talk through some of the reasons why that might happen JORDAN FELDMAN and what we can do to stop it.

From a single person’s standpoint, there’s not much you can do to stop stuff like that from happening, but it’s important just to talk and also understand if there is anything at all you can do to help the people around you.

Antisemitsm, here and now

JG: What I was taught in school is that we never forget to make sure something like that never happens again. And I think it’s important to remember it just because of not only how bad it was, but also how us Jews have stayed strong through it and persevered through it.

And we’re as strong as ever today. It’s important because it’s just part of our story — the story of how Judaism has evolved — especially in these past 100 years.

DG: There’s many things that happened during Holocaust that people look at and try to forget because it’s just so terrible. But if you forget what happened and don’t learn from the past, you’re going to recreate the same mistakes. But there’s also good things that came after the Holocaust such as the Land of Israel. It was not necessarily given to the Jewish people because of the Holocaust, but that probably was a huge reason why they DAViD GERSHERSON thought to even look to that in the first place. So while bad things happen, it’s also good to remember the good things that came after.

JF: I have friends at other schools who I talk to, and one day one of them was like, “Guess what, we learned about World War II today. We finished off the unit and there was no mention of the Holocaust.” I feel like even the smallest things, such as not mentioning it, is part of not remembering. Part of it can be hateful in the smallest sense because not remembering is not really acknowledging that it has happened. There are

2,026

antisemitic incidents recorded in 2020

2,717

antisemitic incidents recorded in 2021

34

percent increase in antisemitic incidents from 2020 to 2021

106

percent increase in antisemitic incidents recorded at K-12 schools from 2020 to 2021

21

percent increase in antisemitic incidents recorded at colleges from 2020 to 2021

JF: For me, it’s a sad fact that we have gone through this repeated cycle of oppression in different forms. The part that makes the Jewish people so strong is being able to push through and being able to remember that we already have pushed through the Holocaust.

We pushed through the Tree of Life shooting a couple years ago when 11 people got shot in a synagogue. We have pushed through all of these things, from practically the beginning of time when Jews were blamed for the killing of Christ. But we’ve always been able to stand strong. We’re very connected, and it’s a very close knit community.

How have each of you started to form your own beliefs and modify your connection to the Jewish community as you grow older? antisemitic incidents recorded in JG: I think I’ve started to develop my 2021 attributed to known rightown faith as opposed to what I’ve simply been taught and told by my family. In wing extremist groups Middle School, I began to doubt Judaism and God. As I matured more and more, Source: American Anti-Defamation League however, I realized just how great the Jewish community was and how nice it was to have a good group of people that was always there for you no matter what.

What has your experience been like with regard to antisemetic ‘jokes’?

DG: I’ve been going to Hebrew school every Sunday JF: There’s often small little jokes or remarks and stuff my whole life really. Being able to learn from a teacher like that, where someone will draw a swastika as a joke has been really helpful. Also, being able to listen to my and then erase it. In reality, some people don’t realize friends’ ideas and thoughts about Judaism has in turn the extent to which that action affects certain people. If allowed me to form some of my own. you draw a swastika in front of a Holocaust survivor, or do a Hitler salute in front of a Holocaust survivor, they’ll JF: I’m similar to these guys in that I went to Hebrew immediately have flashbacks of the times that they school the first seven or eight years of my life. I learned were in at that time. And they’ll immediately remember how to read Hebrew. I learned how to read the Torah. I the harsh places they were in, so us as the younger had my Bar Mitzvah, and then after my Bar Mitzvah, my generation and the ones who are more adapted to the practice of the religion kind of fell off, because I didn’t present, we think that’s messed up. We’d react like, have the obligation to learn Hebrew anymore. But, I just “Why would you say that?” and the older generations felt like I was missing something, so I got involved with would be a lot more offended by that. my Jewish youth group, and I felt a strong connection to my Judaism through that. Now, I feel that my JG: I think that the people who make those jokes are the connection to Judaism is stronger than ever, and it’ll ones who are just uneducated. And I think the way you continue to be strong. I’m going to raise a strong Jewish can stop some of those jokes is by teaching them about family when I grow up. the Holocaust and the magnitude of it, because they definitely just don’t understand how traumatic of a time INTERVIEW Arjun Khatti, Shreyan Daulat it was for the Jewish people.

INFOGRAPHIC Will Spencer

484