Reply To: Tishah BeAv and Yom HaShoah

Lasekrn- I think I partially agree with you. I’m not talking about establishing a new day of commemorating the Holocaust lechatchilah or replacing Tishah BeAv c”v. I am talking about that now, once another day exists, is there a value in commemorating the Holocaust together as a people as a whole in addition to Tishah BeAv? As a secondary question, if not observing Yom HaShoah (specifically not pausing in silence during the siren) causes offense and hurt to other Jews who do take the Holocaust siren seriously, is that not reason enough to pause… especially during the time of year when we are trying to rectify “lo nahagu kavod zeh lazeh?”

Joseph- Let’s ignore for the fact that appreciating the chessed that America does for us while ignoring all of the chesed that Medinas Yisroel does for us is quite confusing to me… standing for the siren on Holocaust Memorial Day is not about recognizing the medina, it’s about memorializing the Holocaust. Is the hate for the medina so strong that you are willing to ignore a Holocaust memorial siren because of your attitude towards the medina? Even if you felt that the siren has no inherent value, is the hate to the medina so strong that you can rationalize offending and hurting other Jews by ignoring the siren they take so seriously just because of your attitude towards the medina?

Bowing to the pope seems to be a poor comparison as that at the very least smells of avodah zarah. It is likely assur D’Oraysa and offending others is no excuse. As far as I know, there is no issur to stand for the siren. Even if you want to somehow argue it’s Chukas HaGoyim (which I think is a very hard argument to make), it’s no more Chukas HaGoyim then standing for a secular national anthem which doesn’t seem to bother you.