Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Yom haShoah and chinuch

I asked my son (6th grade) when I got home if he learned what was special about today. He immediatly responded, "Of course!" and told me that the Satmer Rebbe had passed away. I asked, "Anything else?" "Yes", he responded, "It was also the yahrtzeit of Yehoshua bin Nun."
Now, I am not minimizing either of those items in any way. But would it have hurt his Rebbe or even English teacher to simply mention that we remember the Holocaust today? Maybe even do a little lesson about the Aish Kodesh? Just a thought. I'm used to these things by now, but still feel saddened by it.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:44 PM

    I would like to think that it is a sign of the change in generation. The Nazi's executed my grandfather by firing squad at the very beginning of the war. Most of the remainder of my family (other grandparents, 6 aunts and uncles and 5 or so first cousins) died in the camps. My parents were among the small fraction of my family that survived 6 years in the camps etc. I don't need a day to remember, nor as the past Bobov Rebbe said, does that generation need any memorials.

    To people born here who have never met someone of that generation, it is ancient history, with almost as much relevance to them as the Spanish Inquisition. Like the incredulous looks I get from my teenage son who is amazed that I (like some ancient relic) can remember Vietnam and am old enough to have served there, or the 6 day war for that matter.

    I spent an hour arguing with several young Yeshiva Bochurs who were perfectly comfortable defending the proposition that "that generation" went like sheep to the slaughter. In the end, it waste of my time. They were too young to know or care or think much about it. To paraphrase the famous movie line "A long time ago in a galaxy far away....". I willing to bet on one thing, no Satmar would advance that proposition.

    Perhaps more time in a Mussar shmus would be more valuable as chinuch than any history lessons.

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