Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Memory defines personal identity. When our memories are impaired as a result of diseases like Alzheimer’s, the memory loss is gradual and eventually becomes permanent. Sometimes, the loss of memory can be instantaneous as a result of some physical trauma, such as a head injury or stroke.

As Jews, memory is basic to the preservation of our faith and national identity. When someone attempts to destroy that memory, we must do everything in our power to preserve it. Holocaust Revisionism is a good example of how anti-Semites have tried to attack Jewish memory. If we fail to respond vigorously with the facts about what really happened, the world will forget.

This past weekend, the Jewish world witnessed a bizarre and even macabre parodying of the Holocaust by Haredi Jews who wished to compare the State of Israel to the Nazis. About a thousand protesters gather in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, and donned the yellow Star of David that Jews had to wear in the days of Nazism.

Some people have no shame.

The Haredim are upset about the government’s crackdown on Haredi sexism that has resulted in gender separation in virtually all public spheres of Israeli life.

One Neturei Karta leader, Rabbi Mordechai Hirsch, when asked about his justification, he answered, “Of course I justify it,” said Hirsch. “Yes, it’s from the Holocaust and it’s legitimate. There’s no question about it. This protest reflects the Zionists’ persecution of the Haredi public, which we see as worse than what the Nazis did . . . The Germans just killed the body, but these people want to kill the soul, the spirit.”

The reporter forgot to ask, “But did the Nazis ever send millions of dollars to support Haredi schools in their neighborhoods, just like the Israeli government? Or, “Did the Nazis ever fight wars to protect Jews, just like the Israeli government?”

When the philosopher and journalist Hannah Arendt first coined her expression, “banality of evil” in her fascinating book, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” she argued that the greatest evils in the world are not necessarily carried out by fanatics or sociopaths, but they are carried out by ordinary people who mindlessly execute orders from their superiors without ever questioning the morality of the orders that they have been given. Such individuals believe that their actions are perfectly “normal” and execute their orders the energy of good bureaucrats.

In this case, what we are witnessing is the banalization of Jewish memory.

When a group of Haredi Jews act to trivialize the Holocaust, we have a very serious problem. For those Haredi Jews who are in the moderate camp, we must ask: Are you prepared to condemn such sinful behavior? What can possibly be a more severe chillul HaShem (“desecration of God’s Name”)?