Today is Yom haShoah, the day of Holocaust Remembrance. The first of a few responses, titled “The seventh beacon of the Kedma school.” Thanks to Ofer Neiman for translation.
Here is a forgotten story that we should be reminded of every year:
At the Kedma school in Hatikva neighborhood (**), Tel Aviv, on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 1995, a Holocaust survivor read the following text aloud. The text was written by Sami Shalom Chetrit (***), and a seventh beacon was lighted in memory of the “non Jews” (Gypsies, gays and others) who also perished:
“We, Jews who belong to the third generation of independence and resurrection, wish, with due humility, to seize a seventh beacon from the memorial fire commemorating the six million victims of the Holocaust, and present this seventh beacon for the world to see. We have the tragic right to stand here, commemorate and remind: There is no nation, no culture and no group of human beings which is immune to hatred, racism, persecution and annihilation. Xenophobia, persecution of others and their extermination are a social phenomenon which may afflict any human society, at any time. By no means do we wish to take away from the pain of the memory of our people, or compare one holocaust with another. All we wish for is to remind all human beings that the persecution and the annihilation of the other is a human monster, a creation of the human mind and body, as other races and nations, of various religions and population groups, have experienced throughout human history. We must remember that only human beings can overcome this abominable monster. We, descendants of the worst of all, stand tall today, praying for peace and solidarity among nations, religions, races and cultures”.
This text, and the lighting of the seventh beacon, led to an insane campaign of incitement which brought about the eventual closing of the Kedma school. Most of the champions of human rights and most people on the left wing, how surprising, stood idly by. Apparently, that ceremony at the Kedma school remains the most Jewish ceremony to have ever been held in Israel.
(*) Orly Noy is an Israeli human rights activist
(**) The Kedma school was a progressive democratic school established by Mizrahi activists in Israel.
(***) Sami Shalom Chetrit is a Moroccan- born Hebrew poet and Israeli social and peace activist. He was the school principal in 1995.
(Translated by Ofer Neiman)
