Author: Hovhannisian John

Germany expands Holocaust reparation

The Jerusalem Post
May 19, 2005

The German government has recognized Jews held in labor camps in Africa
as a new category of Holocaust survivor eligible for compensation
payments, the Jewish Claims Conference said Thursday.

The German government also agreed to provide US $11.5 million to help
provide home care for increasingly elderly Holocaust survivors. Last
year it paid 6 million for the purpose, which was allocated to 43
agencies serving Jewish victims in 17 countries, the organization said.

According to the deal worked out with the German Finance Ministry,
Jews held for at least six months in certain labor camps in Tunisia,
Morocco, Algeria, and also in Hungary, are now eligible for payments
from the Finance Ministry’s pension program fund, providing they also
meet the other German requirements.

The Finance Ministry did not immediately return calls for comment on
the agreement.

The Claims Conference, which represents Jews around the world in
negotiating for compensation and restitution for Nazi persecution,
said in a statement that it would continue to press for the inclusion
of other categories of survivors into compensation programs. Those
include Jews who were in forced military labor battalions and “in
concentration camps not currently recognized as such by Germany.”

During the negotiations, the German government also agreed to increase
the amounts paid to recipients of the pension program who live in new
European Union countries to recognize their increased cost of living.

Under the new scheme, recipients in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia will now get 175
(US$222) monthly, up from 135 (US$171).

— Associated Press

Report by OSCE rapporteur on Nagorno Karabakh might be included in agenda of PA PACE session

17 May 2005 [12:07] – Today.Az

Inclusion of a report by Goran Lenmarker, OSCE rapporteur on Nagorno
Karabakh, in the agenda of an annual session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the OSCE, to be held in Washington in July, is still
questionable, Trend reports quoting Eldar Ibrahimov, the vice chairman
of the parliamentary delegation to the PA OSCE.

According to Ibrahimov, it is linked with incompleteness of the
report on Nagorno-Karabakh. “They explain it with Lenmarker’s tours of
other countries. As soon the document is ready it will be submitted
to the Bureau of PA OSCE. After the Azerbaijani and Armenian will
get familiar with their contents. However, the delay of the process
excites concerns, so the Milli Majlis [parliament] gave appropriate
instructions to the international relations department,” Ibrahimov
underlined.

He also noted that the agenda of the annual session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE will be adopted late this May or
early June n a meeting of the OSCE Bureau based in Kopenhagen, Denmark.

“A report by Lenmarker might not be included in the agenda of the
session. In compliance with the internal rules, the parliamentarians
possess a right of including the proposals on discussion of the issues
of interest in the agenda. Thus, the discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh
might be in the agenda. The most important will be Lenmarker’s
readiness for that period,” Ibrahimov.

NEW OPERATOR OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION IN ARMENIA TO START HIS WORK THIS SUMMER

YEREVAN, MAY 17. ARMINFO. The new operator of mobile communication
in Armenia – K-Telecom – will start its activities this summer,
says K-Telecom Director General Ralph Yerikian.

After long negotiations Armentel and K-Telecom signed Monday an
agreement on coupling their cellular communication networks.

For commercial reasons Yerikian refuses to say for how much his
company will lease a communication channel from ArmenTel and how
much it will charge for its services. Now the company is actively
engaged in administrative, commercial and technical preparations and
will official announce its tariffs as soon as it enters the market.
Yerikian says that K-Telecom will provide two types of services:
post-paid and pre-paid.

K-Telecom belongs to a Lebanese holding and provides services in
Karabakh. The company’s president and owner is Piere Fathuch.

ALIYEV, KOCHARIAN HOLD MEETING IN JOYFUL MOOD

Armenpress

WARSAW, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS: Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents Robert
Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev had a two-hour long face-to-face meeting
in Warsaw, Poland on May 15 evening on the sidelines of a Council of
Europe summit. But before their meeting the two presidents met with
OSCE Minsk group cochairmen from Russia, USA and France and a special
representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office Andrzey Kasprzik.

Kocharian, Aliyev and Minsk group cochairmen refrained from speaking
to journalists, who were told that the two presidents had the meeting
in a “joyful mood”.

Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamedyarov told reporters that the
agenda of the presidents’ meeting was focused on the elements of
peace negotiations within the frameworks of the so-called Prague
process. “Every meeting on the level of presidents is an indication
that the negotiation process is moving forward and I hope it is moving
in the right direction,” Mamedyarov said.

Mamedyarov said the idea of regional peace is becoming stronger
and acceptable to all sides. “The status quo cannot be continued
and the problem is in details,” Mamedyarov said, adding that in
many instances, concerning the details under discussion there is a
similarity of positions, but in some instances the positions of the
sides are radically different. Mamedyarov went on to say that the
Kocharian-Aliyev meeting is a good chance to discuss what had been
done and to think about what should be done to establish peace between
the two nations. “We are neighbors and none of us can transfer their
country to another place and therefore we have to work in order to
find a common language,” he said. Late in the evening Kocharian and
Aliyev again met with Minsk group cochairmen.

The genocide of the Armenians will be discussed at the Congress of
Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada in a member
organized session on June 2, 2005. The Congress this year meets in
London, Ontario. Members of the community could participate through a
day pass. See below the details of the 3-part session. The section on
the Armenian case is set at 12:30 noon.

CONGRESS 2005
University of Western Ontario
Session sponsored by the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, the
Society for Socialist Studies and the Canadian Women’s Studies Association

Thursday, June 2, 2005

Part 1: 9:00-10:30am in SH 3350, Break 10:30-10:45am, Part 2:
10:45am-12:15pm in SH 2355, Break 12:15-12:30pm, Part 3: 12:30-2:00pm
in SH 2355
See

Translated Memory and Language of Genocide: (Gendered) Responses to
Traumatic Histories and Silence (with CWSA and CSAA)

Session Coordinators: Dr. Sima Aprahamian and Dr. Karin Doerr

Email Addresses: [email protected] and
[email protected]

Institutional Affiliations: Simone de Beauvoir Institute &
Sociology-Anthropology, Concordia University and Simone de Beauvoir
Institute & Modern Languages, Concordia University

Mailing Addresses: Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University,
1455 de Maisonneuve W., Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8 and Dept. of Classics,
Modern Lang. & Ling., Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and Montreal
Institute of Genocide Research, Concordia University, H-663 1455 de
Maisonneuve Blvd. West Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8

Phones: (514) 848-2424 x2142 or x2370

Description: This session seeks to explore connections between
genocide, the translating of experience, and the recording of
memories. It also aims to deal with the language, silences, and
denials of such history. We wish to illuminate diverse expressions by
analyzing and theorizing survivors’ responses as well as those of
perpetrator nations. We seek to answer questions of how the
persistence of racism, political agendas, and denial perpetuate
traumatization or solicit the need to rearticulate responses to the
past. We particularly welcome papers that include a gender dimension.

Part I: Literary Responses
9:00-10:30am in SH 3350

`Le voci del silenzio’: Voices of Silence in Elsa Morante’s La storia
Gabrielle Elissa Popoff ([email protected]), Columbia University

Abstract: Elsa Morantes 1974 novel “La storia” plays story against
history, presenting a non-hegemonic view of Italian fascism and World
War II. In a key passage, a female protagonist witnesses mass
deportations of Roman Jews. During her subsequent wanderings through
the deserted ghetto, her epileptic hallucinations repopulate it in a
maternal, fantastical way. Morantes willingness to mingle history with
fiction and employ an unreliable narrator to reveal in nonstandard
language untold truths about historys construction and the past is
characteristic of 1970s Italian historical representations, in
contrast to Holocaust survivors more immediate postwar works which
stress their veracity and literary artlessness. [Note: The Italian
word “storia” means both “history” and “story.”]

Personal and Political: Ruth Kluger’s and Judy Chicago’s Feminist
Revisionings of the Holocaust Memories of Feminism and Nationalism in
Ilse Langner’s Mythological Dramas Lynn Kutch ([email protected]),
Lehigh University

Abstract: From 1932-1970 German playwright Ilse Langner developed a
mythological sub-genre featuring mythological heroines that become
emblematic of (West) Germany at highly politicized turning points in
German history. The complexities and contradictions of Langner’s
heroines allow her to portray her country as strong and confident, but
also as the feminized, abused victim driven to violence. This paper
shows that the because of the more powerful messages of victimization
or generalized critique of a war mentality that emerge from Langner’s
works, her topical, potentially hard-hitting critiques dissolve into
subtle nationalism.

Remembering Differently: Transgenerational Haunting in Anne-Marie
Macdonld’s The Way the Crow Flies Susanne Luhmann
([email protected]), Laurentian University

Abstract: This paper examines transgenerational haunting in a Canadian
novel, The Way of the Crow. As a form of historical knowledge
transgenerational is an unconscious remembering. The book both tells
a story about and is animated by the force of transgenerational
haunting. The main protagonist becomes a witness to her father’s sins
and seeks to repair his crimes. By way of telling a different national
history the novel accounts for traumatic national and personal events
(slavery, the holocaust, the cultural genocide of Native people,
childhood sexual abuse), which many would rather forget.

Part II: The Holocaust and Remembering

10:45am-12:15pm in SH 2355

Words of Death and the Death of Words: Memories and Meanings of Jude
Karin Doerr ([email protected]), Concordia University

Abstract: Jude figures prominently in the Lexicon of the Third Reich
Language and illustrates linguistically the Nazis systemic
discrimination and the judeocide. In the postwar era, Jude and its
connotations were silenced. This paper will address how concerns of
post-Auschwitz generations of Germans and Jews converge. I shall
include personal experiences with Jude, my research of the Nazi era
language, and the work of artist and child of German Jewish survivors,
Ruth Liberman. She deals dramatically with German words and memory of
the past. I have also interwoven definitions of Jude from German
dictionaries. Some editions reveal ambivalence with this term.

Off the Record: Voices of Working Poor Jewish Women in Shoah
Representations Marion Gerlind ([email protected]), University of
Minnesota

Abstract: The stigma of poverty and manual labor has been largely
overlooked in historical reconstructions of the Shoah (Holocaust). Few
scholars have scrutinized the connections between socioeconomic status
and gender vis–vis death and survival. My research focuses on
working-class and rural Jewish women growing up with this stigma. Lack
of financial resources and connections decreased their chances of
survival and their testimonies are missing in critical
analyses. Listening to voices of those who were able to
survive-against overwhelming odds-leads to a more comprehensive
assessment of the Shoah. Primarily based on oral history interviews,
I present a few snap shots from survivors’ biographies.

About Auschwitz: Recent Photographs
Judith Lermer Crawley ([email protected]), Photographer/Retired
from Vanier College

Abstract: This presentation/slide-talk will position my most recent
photography exhibit, in the context of my artwork, teaching and family
history. It incorporates text with black and white photographs taken
on a recent visit to the Holocaust’s most infamous extermination camp,
a place my parents, though not most of their families and friends,
narrowly avoided. It functions on artistic, emotional, as well as
informative levels. The text includes information researched after our
visit, panels at Auschwitz and journal extracts. I will share further
research about a photograph I encountered on the wall in one of the
Auschwitz 1 buildings.

Part III: The Armenian Genocide

12:30-2:00pm in SH 2355

Powerful Silences: Becoming a Survivor Through the Construction of
Story Arlene Voski Avakian ([email protected]), University of
Massachusetts

Abstract: Survivors’ accounts of traumatic events function on many
levels for both the teller and the hearer. The construction of these
stories and their telling may also provide a means of countering the
devastating psychological effects of the trauma. This paper will
explore one story about the Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915 as
told to me by my grandmother, Elmas Tutuian. Tutuian’s story omits as
much as it tells. Examining this narrative from a psychological and a
textual perspective, I suggest that by choosing to be silent about
parts of her experience, Tutuian constructed herself as a survivor
rather than a victim.

La Memoire Des Survivants Comme Irrefutable Temoignage Historique du
Genocide des Armeniens
Verjine Svazlian ([email protected]), Museé-Institut du Génocide des
Arméniens de l’Acadmie Nationale des Sciences d’Arménie

Abstract:Les récits et les chants folkloriques (650 units), communiqus
par les témoins oculaires survivants ayant survécu par miracle au
Génocide des Arméniens organisé entre 1915 et 1922 par la Turquie
ottomane, et que nous avons recueillis, enregistré sur cassettes audio
et vido pendant 50 ans en Arménie, en Grèce, en France, aux Etats-Unis
d’Amérique, en Turquie et ailleurs, ont la valeur d’importants
documents historiques et juridiques .

L’étude scientifique de ces documents folkloriques donne une claire
notion de tout le cours du Génocide des Arméniens, du pillage de leurs
biens et de leurs droits humains fouls aux pieds, ainsi que de leurs
héroiques combats contre leurs persécuteurs.

Traumatic Pasts and Silent Presents: Testimony of the Genocide’s
Aftermath in French-Armenian Literature Between the Wars
Talar Chahinian ([email protected]), U.C.L.A.

Abstract: My paper proposes that French-Armenian literature of the
post-Armenian
Genocide period written by survivors can be read as a testimonial of
the trauma in its aftermath through the very repression of genocide
memory, in spite of the lack of an explicit genocide memory in the
texts. The trauma of the aftermath can be mediated indirectly, through
the use of indexical (figurative) representation. My paper is a
symbolic reading of symptoms of trauma in both the content and the
form of Hratch Zardaryan’s novel Mer Gyanke, [Our Life] (1934) and
Zareh Orbuni’s novella Pordze, [The Attempt] (1934).

Aftereffects of War and Colonialism

Facilitating War: Trauma, Memory and Gender
Doris Goedl ([email protected]), Institute for Social
Research, Salzburg, Austria
Abstract: This paper establishes interconnections between a
psychoanalytical approach to trauma, memory and gender, based on
theoretical and practical work as a psychologist (psychodynamic work
with a group of war-traumatized women in Croatia 1994 – 1997) and as a
social researcher in a research-project conducting interviews
(2002-2004) with men an women in Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia-Hercegovina concerning their memories on socialism, transition
and war.
I will highlight how processes of social transformation, political
transition and disintegration in former Yugoslavia can be interpreted
as collectively experienced historical Trauma as well as look at
individual memories and narratives from a gender perspective.

Teaching Gender and Genocide
Lynn M. Maurer ([email protected]) and Anthony Q. Cheeseboro, Southern
Illinois University, Edwardsville

Abstract: Our paper recounts the experiences of incorporating the
issues of gender and race into a university interdepartmental course
on war and peace. These issues are often overlooked in traditional
teaching and understanding of war, thus leading to denial or a
distorted “memory” of issues, such as genocide.
We found that students enter the classroom with preconceived ideas and
ideologies that inhibit memory and deny the multiple roles of women in
war and gender specific attacks involved in genocide. Here we bring
our experience and data forth to be compared with similar courses thus
aiding educators to overcome challenges to memory.

Pan Armenian News

WE READ, SPEAK AND SING IN RUSSIAN COMPETITION FESTIVAL TO BE HELD IN
YEREVAN

12.05.2005 04:09

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Coordination Council of NGOs of Russian Compatriots in
Armenia along with the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) State University with the
support of the Russian Embassy in Armenia plans to hold We Read, Speak and
Sing in Russian international competition festival between higher education
institutions. The competition festival will be held at the Russian-Armenian
(Slavonic) State University May 14 and will mark the celebration of the
60-th anniversary of the Victory over the fascist Germany. Russian Embassy
officers, Armenian First Lady Bella Kocharian and other public and political
figures will be present at the event, reported the Coordination Council.

Café Babel, France
May 9 2005

Identity and collective European memory

The European identity required reconstruction in the aftermath of the
Second World War. It is now time for the European populations to come
together and create a shared, common history. For some things, time
cannot heal.
Memorial for those executed at the Berlin Wall This May has proved
to be a month of happy co-incidence. At a time when more or less
everywhere people are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the end of
the Second World War, the French nation will be called to vote upon
the European constitution. This legislation, an must for European
civil society, forms a landmark in a historically dynamic period
which began to blossom at the end of the Second World War. The wish
that such an event must `never again’ occur, along with an
examination of conscience have finally been translated into the
implementation of the European project. The goal, then, was to avoid
a return to imperialism, to economic protectionism and, above all, to
streamline inter-European processes.

Promoting collective awareness

It was as a consequence of this outbreak of genocide that the
European identity began to reconstruct itself little by little,
bringing with it the construction of a common memory. The journey
began with a promotion of awareness of the atrocities of mankind,
driving us to take our common destiny in hand. It is upon
re-examining our common past, our divisions and our past conflicts
that we are able to construct our common future together.

Hence the importance of education and multi-national commemoration
ceremonies which allow us, beyond our nationalistic interpretations
of the past, to re-write a common history which will be bequeathed to
future European generations. Today, however, despite considerable
effort, it is difficult to overcome the barrier posed by
nationalistic interpretations of the past. Thus the Georg Eckert
Institute, upon analysing school textbooks from 20 European
countries, realised that less than 10% of the content of them dealt
explicitly with European history. `The longer a country has been a
member of the European Union, the higher this percentage rate
becomes. Conversely, in the newly independent States the textbooks
tell a very nationalistic history, insisting on the antiquity and
originality of the nation’ states Fak Pingel, deputy director of the
Georg Eckert Institute. This very institute, moreover, originated as
an innovative experiment responsible for the conception of a
Franco-German history textbook.

Teaching a common history

Thus education is at the heart of the European project and some, like
the European Institute of Cultural Routes, are working on the subject
of key `locations’ in European memory. The issue, explains the
historian Pierre Nora, is to lead a `selective and knowledgeable
exploration of the main areas of our collective heritage, an
inventory of the principal `locations’ and to sketch a `framework of
common history”. As yet, much work still remains to be done if the
Community institutions and EU member states wish to create this
collective history. For if Franco-German relations are at the heart
of this communal re-examination of our past, the Poles and Germans or
indeed the Croats and Serbs still have difficulties in broaching
their own shared pasts.

Equally, in a period when the survivors of the Holocaust are
disappearing, a new and vital stage of this work on a collective
memory is emerging. It is important to transcend the generational and
genealogical aspects since, as German journalist Michael Martins
points out, `it would be necessary, for example, for a young German
of Turkish origin visiting the Holocaust museum in Berlin to
integrate this aspect of the past into his conscience, even if
descendents like himself haven’t been directly confronted by it.
He would need to understand that being European also means being able
to accept all aspects of the past with a sense of contemporary
responsibility.’

Henceforth, Europe still has a heavy workload to accomplish and must
maintain a critical review of the past in order to avoid falling into
`an apologetic and commemorative souvenir memorial’, as Martins puts
it. Is it really pertinent to celebrate the end of the Second World
War between allies? Attitudes are gradually beginning to evolve with,
for example, the notable presence of the German Chancellor, Gerhard
Schroeder, at the commemorations of the Normandy landings last year.
European institutions must concern themselves more with encouraging
European citizens and countries to develop a greater sense of
responsibility. What can one do then, to ensure that the Turkish
government recognises the Armenian genocide whilst the Jewish
genocide is still interpreted differently by EU member states?

In this quest for a collective memory, the European constitution
represents a major step towards the creation of a `constitutional
patriotism’, which signifies that the sentiment of belonging is being
translated into recognition of the principles of democracy and of a
constitutional state. It is a question of transcending national
applications of Human Rights through dialogue and interactions
between member states, stopping short though, of denying national
identities. Saying Yes to the European Constitution means having a
critical reflection on one’s own identity and making our way towards
a new idea of Human rights, social rights and politics, interacting
so as to transcend the nationalistic attitudes which originated from
the barbarisms of the 19th and 20th centuries. Essentially, we must
limit the nationalism which is putting the brakes on the construction
of our common European memory and identity.
Sarah Wolff – Paris – 9.5.2005 | Translation : Paul McIntyre

Three Azerbaijani prisoners freed from captivity in ethnic Armenian
enclave

AP Worldstream
May 07, 2005

Azerbaijan said Saturday that three Azerbaijani soldiers taken
prisoner by ethnic Armenian authorities in the disputed enclave
of Nagorno-Karabakh had been released after nearly three months
of captivity.

The country’s official in charge of missing servicemen in the conflict,
Avaz Hasanov, said the release on Saturday had been brokered by the
International Committee of the Red Cross.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan that has
been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s,
following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave’s final political
status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently
between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer
zone. The enclave is backed by Armenia.

AUSTRALIAN MINISTER CONDEMNS REMOVAL OF ARMENIAN PLAQUE

A1plus
| 13:22:43 | 05-05-2005 | Politics |

The Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Premier on
Citizenship, Mr John Hatzistergos today condemned the removal of
a plaque in Meadowbank, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide.

The plaque, which was installed on April 24, 2005, the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian genocide – has been forcibly removed from Memorial
Park, Meadowbank. It is unknown who has removed the plaque.

“This is a disgraceful and cowardly act,” Mr Hatzistergos said. The
plaque was installed following a motion from Ryde City Council
officially recognising and condemning the Armenian Genocide of 1915,
the first genocide of the twentieth century.

“The plaque is solemnly dedicated to the 1.5 million men, women and
children who were victims of the Armenian genocide.

“It serves as a reminder to the community of such darks chapters in
human history. p>In 1997, the New South Wales Parliament passed a
unanimous bi-partisan motion condemning the Armenian genocide of 1915.

In the following year, the Parliament passed another motion to install
a memorial for the victims of the genocide. That memorial is located
in the New South Wales Parliamentary precinct.

Where was God?

11:13 , 05.05.05

Holocaust must serve as lesson for humanity, not lesson in divinity

Yedioth Internet
By Avraham Burg

Where was God during the Holocaust?

That is the most poignant question raised during in-depth discussions
on “Hitler’s Century.”

An atheist would mostly find justifications for his arguments in
God’s disappearance during the Holocaust.

“A God who allowed more than a million children to die as if they were
bugs cannot exist,” he would say, “and if he does exist, he must not
be worshipped.”

On the other hand, the religious advocate needs the “Holocaust’s
miracles.”

“It’s a fact, the Holocaust led to the establishment of the State of
Israel,” he would say. “It’s a fact, less than half a century after
the crematoria the Jewish people is stronger than ever.”

“It’s a fact, I survived,” we survived!

And what happened to my God during the Holocaust? My God was not
even there.

My God is found elsewhere.

‘It wasn’t God who failed during Holocaust’

For me, God and the Holocaust do not belong together. My question is
not where God was, but where were the people, my brothers and sisters?

After all, the 20th Century was the most secular one we have ever
known – the century of man, where doctrines and perceptions from
previous centuries were realized.

A spirituality of liberation and secularization, ideologies premised
on power and nationalism, combined with the globalization of material
violence and unbounded, immoral greed.

It was not God who failed during the Holocaust, but rather, those
he created.

Moreover, the believer who found God during the Holocaust and the
heretic who lost his God during the same dark period are not that
different from each other.

Both of them either worship or dismiss a God who is their own creation.

They are angry at or cling to something that flows from inside,
and in fact worship themselves and their imaginations.

I belong to those who believe in something that is beyond human,
while they believe in man’s selfish idolatry. They direct their gaze
internally, to the ego, instead of looking up to that which is hidden,
magical, significant and found beyond all of us.

The 20th Century and its Holocaust must serve as a lesson for humanity,
not a lesson in divinity.

The lesson of man who failed in his mission.

A God who observes the minutest details, or a personal providence,
do not really exist. Neither is there a God of reward and punishment
– I pray and he saves, I behave piously and sanctimoniously and he
responds and makes things better.

Indeed, belief is a much more sophisticated matter.

New thinking needed

God gave us the “earth” to live in and rule over. Belief means
responsibility, not secular haughtiness or ultra-Orthodox weakness.

When things don’t work out on earth, it is the failure of the
responsible parties, humans, those around me, myself! It is not the
responsibility of the delegating authority, the invisible God up
there in the “heavens.”

The Holocaust is still too close, its questions have not yet been
fully asked, and its answers cannot yet be provided.

But still, the direction is clear: the old religions and particularly
Judaism, the mother of all western faiths, need new thinking.

Not a doctrine of eternal revenge or the perception that the world
always was, is, and will be against us. Not a “Holocaust Judaism”
that justified all our injustices because they pale in comparison to
the major injustice inflicted upon us.

The individual, and the group, need new thinking, which rejects that
personal providence notion, God as a babysitter. Because a God who
manages the lives of all individuals means a God who does not leave
any personal space for humanity to produce, correct, and be a partner
in creation.

‘There are other Holocausts that aren’t ours’

The new thinking stemming from the holocaust must focus on the forging
of better humans and a better humanity, that would never again give
rise to destroyers of humanity such as the Nazis, and would not allow
victims to be exterminated, as happened to us and the Gypsies and
homosexuals who were there with us.

Just like happened to the Armenians before us, and the victims of
genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia after us.

We need the kind of thinking that does not give us a monopoly on
suffering and exclusive rights to the Holocaust, because there were,
and there are, other Holocausts that are not ours.

New beliefs, and particularly Judaism, must breach the boundaries
of the enclosed old religion and turn the belief in humans as God’s
creatures into the basis for its tradition and customs.

Indeed, this new thinking must serve as the binding basis for dialogue
between followers of all religions who are willing to leave their own
“territory” in order to protect us and the world from bloodshed in
the name of closed-minded religion or arrogant humanity, wherever it
may be found.

Avraham Burg is a former Labor party Knesset member and author of
“God is Back”