Memory of holocaust calls for unflagging vigil against anti-Semitism

 CONTEXT:

1. 
   The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, together with its consulates in Mumbai and Bengaluru, commemorated January 27, 1945 virtually in different ways. 
2. A unique training programme was launched to assist teachers in India in tackling the difficult subject of holocaust education and making it accessible to Indian students.

 BACKGROUND:On January 27, the Jewish community and their friends all

over the world observed the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a day marked as “International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust”.

1. On this day, exactly 76 years ago, the biggest death camp in history was once and for all liberated.
2. On January 27, 1945, allied forces entered Auschwitz-Birkenau and other camps (Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen Belsen, Ravensbruck, Mauthausen, Theresienstadt, Treblinka, Sobibor to name just a few), liberated the camps and freed those who survived the horror.

 

WHAT IS ANTISEMITISM?

1. International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is the only intergovernmental organisation mandated to focus solely on holocaust-related issues.
2. It was formerly known as the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, or ITF.
3. It unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance and promote holocaust education, research and remembrance.
4. The IHRA provides us with a non-legal binding working definition of antisemitism, which sets an example of responsible conduct for other international fora, and provides an important tool with practical applicability, for the ever-expanding member countries.
5. The core of the IHRA Working Definition states that, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions, and religious facilities.”
6. Manifestations of antisemitism might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
7. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for “why things go wrong.”
8. It is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and action, and employs sinister stereotypes and negative character traits.
9. The working definition of antisemitism was adopted by IHRA in 2016, and has since been adopted or recognised by at least 18 countries, and there is room for more countries to do so.

 

CONCLUSION:

1. World must never forget the atrocious acts committed by the Nazis during World War II. The systematic murder committed during the holocaust, the Shoah, is incomparable in magnitude, methods and malice.
2. Six million Jews were slaughtered in the death camps and those who survived, the ashes that returned to their ancestors’ cradle, have become the foundation rock of the resurrection of modern Israel.
3. Three-quarters of a century later, the dark ideology of antisemitism, which resulted in the holocaust in the last century, has still not vanished and is, in fact, growing in parts of the world.
4. It has manifested in waves of violent incidents and attacks that have targeted Jewish communities across the diaspora. The phenomenon has plagued Europe, the US and the world over.