Agudath Israel Raps Holocaust Commission Remembrance Days Plans

The Agudath Israel of America has charged that the initial plan advanced by President Carter’s Commission on the Holocaust to mark the week of April 22-29 as “Days of Remembrance” for victims of Nazism has offended the sensibilities of Orthodox Jewry.

Noting that the week’s activities are scheduled to open with ceremonies at Temple Eman-El in New York and conclude in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington, the Orthodox Jewish organization said that the program appears designed to reflect the “ecumenical aspirations of some of the Commission’s participants rather than to authentically project the theme of Remembrance.”

Calling upon the Commission “to rethink its entire attitude” and to “come up with a program that will be an honor for the memory of the martyrs,” the Agudath Israel declared in a statement.

“In honoring the memory of six million martyrs, we must bear in mind that a major segment of them were uncompromising in their Orthodoxy, and because of their religious convictions would have avoided participation in religious ceremonies held in any house of worship other than on Orthodox synagogue… A combination of a temple and a church is hardly the place to perpetuate their hallowed memory.

“If it is the Commission’s intentions that the week’s activities include as broad a spectrum of participants as possible and be effective in commemorating the Holocaust, it should avoid any particular religious identifications foreign to the spirit of the Holocaust victims. One would expect that a U.S. government-sponsored commission would refrain from steps that would offend both the memory of the Holocaust victims and many American religious Jews who would choose to honor them.”