There is something truly demonic about the millennial fury directed at Jews
Ihave just returned with my wife and oldest grandson from a long-promised four-day trip to Vienna and Eastern Europe, including many hours at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Tours of the latter do not form part of the chareidi curriculum in Israel. Indeed, Jewish history in any form is not part of the high-school age curriculum that my grandson just completed prior to entering yeshivah gedolah. By contrast, approximately one-third of Israeli high school students visit Auschwitz on Education Ministry-sponsored trips each year, though the average price tag of $1,600 places the trips beyond the capabilities of many families.
Of late, however, the trips have become controversial even among secular educators, with some of Israel’s leading high schools dropping them for a variety of reasons — some good and some not so good. Journalist Shmuel Rosner, for instance, writes of the danger of an over-focus on Auschwitz leading to an association of Judaism exclusively with unspeakable suffering. He has a good point.
Left-wing educators dating back to the late education minister Shulamit Aloni complain that visits to Auschwitz instill students with nationalistic feelings at the expense of instilling universal values — i.e., they make them think too much about themselves as Jews.
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