Michal Govrin: Preparing to Remember the Holocaust When the Last Survivors Have Died

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Michal Govrin: Preparing to Remember…

Apr112021

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain.

Quote: “Called Hitkansut, which means gathering in Hebrew, the new program is modeled in part on the Passover seder, with a modified haggadah guiding the ritual. It begins with an invitation to gather, much like the invitation at the beginning of the maggid, or storytelling, portion of the seder. If a Holocaust survivor is present at the gathering, he or she reads ‘the survivors’ call,’ a short text composed by survivor Zvi Gil.

Sources: Wikipedia, jweekly.com

Learn more about Michal Govrin on Wikipedia. ►

Read “CCCCC” ►

Read “CCCCC” ►

Read “Holocaust survivors are dwindling out. A new Yom Hashoah ritual recognizes that.” ►

Watch “Jews and Antisemites Today | Prof. Michal Govrin” [30:15]. ►

Photo: Center for Israel Education

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“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.

Michal Govrin: Preparing to Remember the Holocaust When the Last Survivors Have Died

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