So what she is really saying was ‘Why is the challenge of that generation so much harder than the challenge of this generation?’ Other than the magnitude and scope of the Holocaust, I had little retort. 1945, while yesterday for some, is a long time ago to her and her peers. She did not grow up in the wake of the survivors’ generation, as I and most of this column’s readers did. My daughter looks for a dangling Hamsa and red-stringed bracelets. When I was 10, I scanned every old person’s forearm for tattooed blue numbers. They are in no way real-life, modern people in her neighborhood. Yet for this little girl, the Holocaust is as removed from her history as the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492.
The scope of the atrocities and systemized killing of communities and Jewish families is beyond comprehension. The magnitude of the Holocaust is unparalleled. She summed up a reality that we all know but perhaps often are afraid to admit. I, on the other hand, felt like I had the wind sucked from my gut. She put her headphones back on her head and picked up with Taylor Swift. So what is different between Iran and Hamas and the Nazis? Don’t they all want to hurt Jews and Israel? The Holocaust was bad and sad, but so are all of these other things.” And dad, you are always talking on the phone about Iran not getting a bomb and I know it is because they could hurt Israel with that bomb. “And going to Har Herzl, the military cemetery where so many soldiers died for Israel, is really sad too. “Dad, the Holocaust was horrible and really sad but, when we were here in Israel this summer lots of people died during the war and the sirens and hiding in shelters was really sad and scary too,” she replied. Finally, out of sheer frustration, I pulled the headphones from her ears and blurted out over Taylor Swift as she played in the background, “Honey, did you understand anything that you saw at Yad Vashem yesterday? Do you have any questions? You haven’t said a word about it!” She was buttoned up – a strange phenomenon for any 10-year-old girl, especially mine. I delicately tried to pry some thoughts and emotions out of this usually talkative prepubescent girl. Did we make a mistake by allowing her to visit the museum? Was she not ready? Did she not get it? Was she more focused on iPads and music? All of that would be fine too, but I was second-guessing our decision to take the training wheels off and allow her to begin this important ride down history’s road to our past. Was this one of those rare moments where she was a pure 10 year old and not the mature, high-level person I was used to, I wondered. When the tour ended with a personal story from the museum docent about his parents, adults wiped tears from their cheeks. She was trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. She, like most adults, had many more questions than answers. Our daughter chose to go.Īs she strolled through the halls of the museum, captivated with the photos, videos, testimonies, and history, I saw the girl who is usually talkative and full of energy now fidgeting with her lip and noticeably pensive. Just because she could go did not mean she had to. We agreed that the choice of going to Yad Vashem would be hers. My wife and I discussed this trip at length. She might be 10 ½, but emotionally she seems to me to be older and more sophisticated than I am much of the time. Our daughter is a precocious kid who is very dialed into her emotions. Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Rabbi Holzman and his wife, Nicole Saffell Holzman, reside in Reston with their two children.However, when she was in my arms, just a few minutes into her life, and even as recently as last week, I never anticipated another rite of passage – when my daughter was old enough to visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the fallen of the Holocaust.
Before rabbinic school, he worked for three years as a paralegal specialist with the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Rabbi Holzman was ordained in 2003 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem, and is a 1995 graduate of Washington University in St. Prior to that, he served for one year as the Rabbi of B’nei Israel Congregation in San Jose, Costa Rica. Rabbi Holzman served from 2004 to 2010 as Associate Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An inspirational and compassionate spiritual leader, Rabbi Holzman has a strong commitment to lifelong Jewish education, youth programming, and social action, and is known for his highly innovative, energetic, and successful approaches to making Judaism accessible and exciting to all. Holzman began his tenure as NVHC’s fourth Rabbi in July, 2010.
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