by Miceál O’Hurley
DUBLIN — The International observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) saw ceremonies and individual acts of remembrance take place around the globe. The annual Shoa memorials were instituted by UNGA Resolution 66/7 in 2005 designating 27 January as annual day of recollection of the evils of the Holocaust. The date was selected to commemorate the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau, an infamous Nazi concentration camp in which Jews and other minorities as well as protesters against National Socialism were persecuted, tortured and invariably put to death.
IHRD was not only instigated as an annual memorial to remind humanity of the evils of the Holocaust but incorporates the fundamental principle that Holocaust denial is anathema to historic memory, human rights and a further privation of the memory of the victims. The UNGA sought fit to encourage Member States to adopt educational programmes in support of the objectives of the resolution not only to mark the Holocaust but make efforts to prevent further genocides.
On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 60/7 to designate January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD). The date marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and is meant to honor the victims of Nazism. The same resolution supports the development of educational programs to remember the Holocaust and to prevent further genocide. The Resolution encourages UN Member States to preserve sites used by the Nazis to implement their “Final Solution”, a comprehensive programme to exterminate Jews, Roma, Homosexuals and other minorities from human existence. The Resolution as adopted incorporates the values and language of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by condemning “religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief” worldwide.
Ireland is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Allicance (IHRA). As part of their commitment to the IHRA, Ireland instituted a ‘Standing Committee on Holocaust Education, Research and Remembrance’ comprised of governmental representatives, the ‘Holocaust Education Trust Ireland’ (HETI), the Irish Jewish Museum, and several academics. Part of the undertakings Ireland has made including working with HETI and allied organisations to promote Holocaust education and awareness through teacher education programmes. This work has included the ‘Crocus Project’ initiative as well as the ‘National Holocaust Memorial Day’ commemoration. Irish teachers can ear a ‘Certificate in Holocaust Education’ from the Herzog Centre at Trinity College Dublin as part of its continuous professional development offerings.
The Council of Europe (CoE) maintains a web page dedicated to Holocaust Remembrance as part of its annual commitment to international initiatives. The site provides informative information on CoE activities, timelines of historic events, reflections from survivors as well as information on current activities.
This year is a particularly poignant year in the commemorations as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has culminated in a precipitous flight of Jews from their homes and synagogues across Ukraine. As a percentile of the general population Russia’s illegal invasion of the interior of Ukraine has resulted in one of the largest exoduses of Ukrainian Jewry in history on par with the Massacre of Uman (1768) by Russians, the pogroms of Russia’s Catherine ‘The Great’ (17981), the 1881, 1905, 1919 pogroms and the massacre of Ukrainian Jews under the Nazis and USSR during the early 1940s.
On 24 February 2022, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, stood at the doors of his Kyiv synagogue holding sacred Torah as an act of defiance against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Today, Rabbi Azman continues to lead Ukraine’s Jewish community from Kyiv and by making trips around the country, including to the contact line, to support Ukraine’s defense and security by distributing charity where needed to Jews, gentiles, Muslims and others in need. However, many rabbis have fled for refuge in Europe or Israel to escape persecution by Russian Federation forces who claimed their invaded Ukraine to conduct “de-Nazification”. In Kherson, prior to its liberation from Russian occupation, the ancient city of Kherson boasted 28 Jewish congregations.
Under Russian occupation the rabbis fled the city along with the majority of the Jewish population. Today, only a single synagogue remains open in Kherson. The Russian Federation’s invasion and persecution has devastated Ukraine’s Jewish community, many fear permanently.
Jews in Russia have also suffered under the Russia Federation, particularly since its illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and full-scale invasion in 2022. The Jewish Agency, an NGO that assists Jews around the world to relocate to Israel reporting that some 20,500 Russian Jews have left Russia to seek refuge in Israel since March 2022. Best estimates placed Russia’s Jewish population at only 165,000 before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine making the exodus to Israel shockingly large. There is no reliable way of estimating the number of Russian Jews who have fled to Europe as well. On 28 July 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Justice obtained a court order shutting down the activities of the Jewish Agency largely due to its criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and mistreatment of Jews as well as Israel’s condemnation of violations of International Law.
In light of Russia’s blatantly false claims that Ukraine was controlled by Nazis there is abundant evidence that Russia has inflicted an incredibly blow to Ukrainian Jewry as well as Russian Jews.
In a severe blow to Moscow’s reputation and propaganda efforts concerning Ukraine being in need of “de-Nazification” Moscow’s Chief Rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, was exiled for telling Russian jews to leave Russia while they were still able. Before leaving in exile in July 2022 Rabbi Goldschmidt said, “We’re seeing rising antisemitism while Russia is going back to a new kind of Soviet Union, and step by step the iron curtain is coming down again. This is why I believe the best option for Russian Jews is to leave. Rabbi Goldschmidt resigned from his post and fled to Israel for his safety after his remarks infuriated Putin by warning Russian Jews they risked becoming scapegoats because of the severe problems incurred by Russia through sanctions for their invasion of Ukraine. Speaking to The Guardian, Rabbi Goldschmidt said in December 2022, “When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community. We saw this in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime.”
As for Russia’s desire to engage in a comparison over the treatment of Jews between Moscow and Kyiv, Ukraine’s historic complicity in the persecution of Jews is a matter of record. After independence from the USSR, however, Ukraine has emerged a changed nation. The 30-plus years of independence from Moscow has seen a revival of Ukrainian Jewish communities. Dnipro now boast the largest Jewish Community Centre in all of Europe. Synagogues have been rebuilt and new ones founded. Most striking is that Volodymyr Zelenskii, Ukraine’s President, has never hid his Jewish heritage and famously garnered 74% of Ukraine’s popular vote in the last presidential elections. While continued work is required everywhere, this year’s IHRD serves to highlight how anti-Semitism and discrimination can be overcome. Equally so, IHRD 2023 underscores the danger regimes like the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin pose to religious freedom, tolerance and equality.
Since clawing his way to power in 1999 as Prime Minister, Putin has carefully cultivated an image as a Russian patriot and defender of Christianity. Implicit in this narrative is an often articulated accusation that Jews invoke the memory of the Holocaust to portray themselves as victims as a means of diverting the world’s attention from what Putin perceives to be the ‘real victims’ of World War II – the Russian people and in particular, Russian Christians. This Russian nationalistic world view predominates the right-wing base Putin used to ascend to power and maintain it. Since instigating the invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and widening it to a full-scale invasion in 2022, Putin has shorn-up support by using his relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and its Patriarch, Kirill, to appeal to Russian Christians to support his invasion of Ukraine. Kirill, for his part, encourages Russian military personnel to venerate religious-styled icons of Putin by kissing them before receiving a blessing from Russian Orthodox priests. Kirill has also proclaimed it is the duty of the Russian “faithful” to kill Ukrainians to help Russia in its efforts to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.
