Education Ministry Director-General Dalit Stauber has sent a letter to municipality leaders and school principals, seeking to implement her vision for marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. In her letter she cites the significance of this year’s observance, and the need to do something special.
She feels the special anniversary highlights the connection between the Warsaw ghetto, the Holocaust and our living in an independent Jewish state.
“On Friday, 9 Iyar 5773 at 10:00am,at the exact times flags were waved in the Warsaw ghetto, a flag-waving assembly should be held in all of the nation’s schools,” she points out. Stauber wants the entire nation’s schools to wave the flags simultaneously, “to highlight the miracle, the connection of the past, present and future.”
“During a period in which Israeli society faces numerous challenges regarding our values, social issues; education; and security; what stands out is the values exhibited in the Warsaw ghetto, to become a model for society today,” Stauber explains.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Why is this article reprinted in Yeshiva World as is, leaving the impression that its contents are totally in accordance with Yeshiva ideals. In fact, there is a lot of well held opinion within the yeshiva and chasidic world that the uprising was wrong and could have been the cause of many unnecessary deaths or at least the acceleration of same. Both of which are wrong. This was certainly the opinion of Harav A Z Friedman hy”d the mechaber of Mayono shel Torah and a leading member of the Aguda Rabinate in Warsaw.(see Hamodia supplement Pesach 5773 edition in conjuntion with Project Witness).Let us not forget that the values we want to learn from the Warsaw Ghetto People was their determination to live what was left of their lives learning as much Torah as they can, fulfilling as many Mitzvos (such as the preparations for that last Seder on the day of the uprising) and above all helping other people survive.
Values? R u kidding? Haven’t they learned that only Torah has real and lasting values
@etzhar
Please be sensitive before writing disparaging comments about the kedoshim who gave their lives al kiddush hash-m during the Uprising. While there were some poskim who did not hold of the Uprising, there were others, like R’ Menachem Ziemba, ztl, hyd (one of the leading poskim in pre-war Europe) who gave their unequivocal haskama to it.
RebYid40
I am sorry if you found my words “disparaging”. However I do not think they were. I simply pointed out an opinion and my post makes it quite clear that it was just an opinion. I also tried to point out that the values we are supposed to take from the Kedoshim of the holocaust are not what was portrayed by the writer of the letter in the article.
The point which is most troublesome about this very prevalent view in Israel is that ascribing values to these few people somehow criticises all the other millions of Kedoshim who apparently didnt do anything valiant in the ghetto. I simply tried to redress the balance.
Incidentally,if you read the quoted Hamodia supplement you will also see that it is not so unequivocal that Harav Ziemba HYd actually did pasken for it.
The people who did carry out the Uprising were indeed Kedoshim and did what they did with absolutely sincerity, the fact that it may have been wrong according to some does not detract from that.