Opinion

What We Should Learn 75 Years After Kristallnacht

By Rabbi Abraham Cooper

The Nazi Holocaust was the quintessential example of humanity’s capacity for evil. Here are three points for gentile and Jew to reflect on this Kristallnacht.

1. If European leaders refuse to protect live Jews, they shouldn’ t bother attending memorials for 6 million dead Jews.

2. Stop de-Judaizing the Nazi Holocaust. Evil is not merely an abstract idea. The Nazis murdered Anne Frank and six million of her brethren for death only because she and they were Jews. Public memorials and teaching modules omitting this truth desecrate the dead.

3. We Jews have to toughen up. Accepting the status quo in Europe is demeaning and only emboldens the bigots on the street and in the halls of Parliaments.

2013 is not 1938. But, we Jews dare not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s by pinning our hopes that Europe’s leaders will do the heavy lifting to defend our rights. Only we can secure our dignity. As Simon Wiesenthal himself often said: “Freedom is not a gift from heaven. It must be fought for every day.” Zachor, Lo Tisckhach (Remember, do not forget!).

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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