This is a poster (also named a pashkevil) printed by Ultra-Orthodox groups in 2008, condemning the principals of Ultra-Orthodox educational institutions who took their teachers for one-day seminar at Yad Vashem. The pashkevil accuses the principals of greed and of exposing the teachers to heresy and vilification which humiliate the victims of the Nazis. It also criticises the very existence of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was established “according to their laws” – a reference to the secular calendar not accepted by this community.
This poster is an example of the Ultra-Orthodox community’s complex relationship with contemporary Holocaust commemoration and education in Israel, demonstrating the community’s objection to the secular Holocaust Remembrance Day. As found amongst some, Ultra-Orthodox groups, the Jewish tragedy in Europe during the Second World War is not referred to as the Holocaust and is names “the years of fury in Europe” In this poster.
Yad Vashem is Israel’s national Holocaust memorial institution, dedicated to educating the public about the Holocaust and preserving the history of these times.
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Ultra-Orthodox Jews and Holocaust Remembrance – Despite the fact that a large number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, Holocaust remembrance and education is a sensitive issue for Ultra-Orthodox groups. They object to the date set by the secular Israeli government for the national Holocaust Remembrance Day, namely, 27 Nisan, the date on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. Their opposition is based on the fact that Jewish law forbids mourning in the month of Nisan, known as “the month of redemption.” They are also ambivalent about the focus on the uprisings – led mostly by secular Zionist groups – that prompted the choice of this date. Although they place much emphasis on the Shoah, many in the Ultra-Orthodox world see this as another link in a long chain of persecutions against the Jews. As such, some rabbis opposed to the adoption of the term “Shoah,” believing that there was no need to use a new term for this persecution. The Holocaust often leads to discussions of theological issues such as sin and punishment and the perennial question of where was God during the Shoah. This thus explains why the Ultra-Orthodox community might find the secular educational messages of the Holocaust led by the secular and Zionist Yad Vashem somewhat problematic. Other issues include their claim that not enough emphasis is put on spiritual bravery during the Holocaust, the complex narrative of the rescuing of rabbis while their communities were killed, and even the graphic nature of some of the photographs shown in the Yad Vashem museum. The Ultra-Orthodox public also struggles with secular customs adopted for Yom HaShoah such as the use of the siren, believing that Jews should be commemorated in exclusively Jewish ways, namely learning Torah and reciting Psalms.
Holocaust – The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide and persecution of European Jewry by the German Nazi regime and its collaborators in Europe and North Africa during World War II. The Holocaust was implemented in stages from Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party’s first rise to power. From 1933 anti-Jewish laws were passed in Germany which excluded the Jews from German society. The Nazis also began to create a network of concentration camps where Jews and other “undesirable elements” of society were imprisoned in inhumane conditions. With the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II, which started in 1939, the formal persecution of Jews was implemented in all the occupied countries. Jews were sent to ghettos, made to work in forced labour, and lived in appalling conditions. In 1942 the Nazis held the Wannsee Conference where they decided on the Final Solution which detailed the extermination all the Jews of Europe. Initially, more than one million Jews were exterminated by death squads named Einsatzgruppen, who were assisted by local collaborators. As of 1942 Jews were deported from the ghettos to death camps in Poland, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, where millions were murdered in gas chambers on arrival. Jews who were not immediately murdered were sent to force labour, and many died as a result of the harsh conditions, starvation, and disease. Jewish resistance was extremely difficult, but attempts to fight the Nazis were made by Jewish partisans and fighters in uprisings such as, most famously, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Sobibor Uprising. In 1944, as it became clear that the Nazis were losing the war, Nazi camp commanders began to close the camps and forced the survivors to march towards Germany. Already sick and weak from the years of violence, more than 250,000 Jews died on these death marches. The Holocaust came to an end with the defeat of the Nazis in May 1945. Six million Jews, two thirds of the Jewish population of Europe, were murdered with millions more experiencing tremendous suffering, violence, and loss. In addition to the Jews, millions of Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, and Soviet and Polish prisoners of war were also murdered during the Holocaust.
Yom HaShoah – Yom HaShoah (יום השואה), known in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is Israel’s national day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and the Jewish resistance during that period. Yom HaShoah is commemorated by a siren and memorial ceremonies throughout the country. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959. Yom HaShoah takes place on 27 Nisan, marking the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The idea of Holocaust Remembrance Day sparked a debate on how to commemorate such a tragic event – even the suitable date was deliberated. Some wanted to emphasise the rebellions and armed resistance and therefore saw fit to set this day on the day that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out; others sought to emphasise the disaster and destruction of the Jewish people and wanted to add the day to one of the days of national mourning, such as Tisha B’Av or the tenth of Tevet. Further opposition to the chosen date came from religious circles, due to the tradition not to mourn in the month of Nisan.
Pashkavils - Pashkavils are a genre of posters found in ultra-Orthodox communities for conveying a wide and varied range of messages. The language used on the posters often contains internal codes that people within the community immediately understand. These codes are often allusions to traditional Jewish literature, such as the phrase “The Nation as a Wall” that refers to the ultra-Orthodox seclusive ideology. The posters deal with topical issues within the ultra-Orthodox community. One of the most prevalent issues is the challenge of preserving the boundaries of tradition and social values while living in modern Israel.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews - Ultra Orthodox Jews (Hareidim) see themselves as the most religiously observant of all Jews. They are characterized by their shunning of much of the modern secular culture.
