If you really want Yad Vashem to understand your complaints, why don’t you meet with them in person?I did. At their request, the meeting was “off the record,” and subsequent requests for follow-up meetings with Yad Vashem representatives have been denied (in writing). The public arena, therefore, is the only forum available to me now.What was the response of the Yad Vashem officials with whom you met? And have any changes been made to the museum since it opened?Initially, I was told that everything was still too new. They said they would re-evaluate all aspects of the museum and make changes. During the past six years, perhaps in response to articles such as this one, minor changes have been made. Instead of zero videotaped testimonies by Haredi survivors, for example, now there is one. But much more needs to be done and at a much quicker pace before Haredi authors will change from adversaries to advocates of Yad Vashem.Have Yad Vashem representatives responded to the negative critiques that have appeared in the Haredi press?In some cases, the periodical editors were castigated for publishing articles which were critical of Yad Vashem. At other times, the Yad Vashem spokespersons attempted to obfuscate the issues. They cited, for example, the online services available to the Haredi community. They pointed to the special Orthodox division of their tour guide training school. And they emphasized how many Orthodox students make use of Yad Vashem archives for research purposes. Occasionally, they resorted to casting personal aspersions on the writers of the unflattering reviews.The substantive objections to the museum cited above, however, were simply not addressed in their responses.What do you hope to accomplish by writing in The Jerusalem Post?I hope to impress upon Yad Vashem that the negative sentiments among Haredim toward Yad Vashem are not fleeting, fickle or fringe. Moreover, they are provoked by omissions and misrepresentations which can and must be corrected now to truly honor the memory of the victims and survivors of the Shoah. We owe it to them, to ourselves and to all future generations.The writer is a New York based psychotherapist, author and public speaker.
Yad Vashem and the Haredim
Even Yad Vashem would admit that Haredim represented more than two percent of the total number of Holocaust survivors. Why won’t the museum’s exhibits reflect that fact?
If you really want Yad Vashem to understand your complaints, why don’t you meet with them in person?I did. At their request, the meeting was “off the record,” and subsequent requests for follow-up meetings with Yad Vashem representatives have been denied (in writing). The public arena, therefore, is the only forum available to me now.What was the response of the Yad Vashem officials with whom you met? And have any changes been made to the museum since it opened?Initially, I was told that everything was still too new. They said they would re-evaluate all aspects of the museum and make changes. During the past six years, perhaps in response to articles such as this one, minor changes have been made. Instead of zero videotaped testimonies by Haredi survivors, for example, now there is one. But much more needs to be done and at a much quicker pace before Haredi authors will change from adversaries to advocates of Yad Vashem.Have Yad Vashem representatives responded to the negative critiques that have appeared in the Haredi press?In some cases, the periodical editors were castigated for publishing articles which were critical of Yad Vashem. At other times, the Yad Vashem spokespersons attempted to obfuscate the issues. They cited, for example, the online services available to the Haredi community. They pointed to the special Orthodox division of their tour guide training school. And they emphasized how many Orthodox students make use of Yad Vashem archives for research purposes. Occasionally, they resorted to casting personal aspersions on the writers of the unflattering reviews.The substantive objections to the museum cited above, however, were simply not addressed in their responses.What do you hope to accomplish by writing in The Jerusalem Post?I hope to impress upon Yad Vashem that the negative sentiments among Haredim toward Yad Vashem are not fleeting, fickle or fringe. Moreover, they are provoked by omissions and misrepresentations which can and must be corrected now to truly honor the memory of the victims and survivors of the Shoah. We owe it to them, to ourselves and to all future generations.The writer is a New York based psychotherapist, author and public speaker.