On Holocaust Remembrance Day - What is Possible?

Dear Olmert,

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day is a powerful day. It is powerful not only for the emotions and remembrtance it brings out, but for what it makes possible.

Last night you spoke again at Yad Vashem. You spoke about the deniers of the Holocaust:

Their animosity drives them insane, and they foolishly deny the greatest horror ever known to humanity. To them – the haters, the deniers and the devisers of malice, wherever they may be – and to all those who allow them to act, we say on this day: never again!

We are not deniers. Are we not deniers because we remember? Do we remember because we are not denyers? Do we not have animosity in our land? Do we not have devisers of malice? Do we not allow them to act?

It is possible for us to do more than remember? We can do more than never forget. We can, we must, do more than say: 'never again!'

Photo by GPO

You said:

Never again will a Jewish child be led, with his hands held up as a sign of surrender, to the valley of death; never again will a man be separated from his wife, a child from her father and a grandson from his grandfather – only because they are Jews. Never again will the elderly be humiliated in the town square, mocked and beaten to their last breath – only because they are Jews.

Your remarkeable defiance misses what is possible. Take the word 'Jewish'. What does it mean? Is it a label for a person? Is it a label for a state? During the Holocaust, persons with this label were killed. Today, a state demands this label, often persecuting those without it.

Perhaps 'Jewish' is more than a label. Being Jewish may be being responsibe A Jewish State may be responsible for the prosperity of all its citizens. A Jewish person may be responsible for this state, for life.

What if you used the word Jewish to denote not a person, but a responsibility. "Never again will a Jewish person "let children be led, a man be be seperated, etc...". "Never again will a Jewish state let the elderly be humiliated, mocked and beaten... only because..."?

How possible is that?