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‘Never again’ means ‘again and again’ Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 2025 • Bo • 2 to 8 Shevat 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 4
Mobilizing Germany to hate: A 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg. WikiCommons, Public Domain
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Holocaust survivors — fewer in number each year — attend the commemoration of the liberation of the German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army 80 years ago on Jan. 27. Sergei Gapon, AFP via Getty Images.via JNS
World marks ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ as its memory of Shoah fades Fiamma NiReNSTeiN
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he sentiment “Never Again,” once a solemn vow against repeating the horrors of the Holocaust, has eroded in the face of rising global antisemitism and the ideological tides that now threaten the Jewish people and the State of Israel. On Monday, the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day — but it was a day not of remembrance but of “non-remembrance,” a stark reckoning with the betrayal of that promise. Antisemitism manifests itself today
through a coordinated assault on Israel, a nation surrounded by hostility on multiple fronts. Globally, antisemitic ideologies flourish, infiltrating academia, workplaces and cultural institutions. This widespread animosity belies the hollow commemorations of the Holocaust; performative gestures by some nations contrast sharply with actions that vilify and discriminate against modern Jewish communities. The Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 — marked by atrocities against civilians, including children — laid bare the resurgence of genocidal hate. It is a grim reminder of the dehumanization that fueled the final solution of Jews that Nazi Germany worked so hard to achieve. Hamas’ actions — filmed and disseminated for propaganda — mirror the worst atroci-
ties of the past, albeit with modern tools and a chilling openness. The cries of “From the river to the sea” and “Kill the Jews,” heard in protests across Europe, the United States and elsewhere, echo the rhetoric of annihilation. While the scale and methodology of these acts differ from the Shoah, the intent to demonize and eradicate remains disturbingly
Anti-Jewish hatred that fueled the Holocaust is alive and adapting to modern contexts.
familiar. The Holocaust’s haunting images — a mother clutching her child moments before death in Ivangorod, Ukraine — resonate with the horrors of families slaughtered in their homes or burned alive in October. These parallels challenge us to confront a painful truth: The anti-Jewish hatred that fueled the Holocaust is alive and adapting to modern contexts. he failure to uphold “Never Again” is evident in the political opportunism and ignorance surrounding responses to contemporary antisemitism. Institutions that claim to honor Holocaust memory often simultaneously endorse narratives that demonize Israel. For example, universities expel Israeli representatives, while activists call for a “free Palestine” without addressing See Nirenstein on page 2
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