This Holocaust Remembrance Day called different because of 'shadow hanging over us'

On the annual day marked to remember the Holocaust, 87-year-old Annie Kleinhaus, a survivor, said that when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, "it felt as if the ground opened under my feet."

Kleinhaus, who was born in 1936 in Belgium and was hidden in a French orphanage during the war, said she has heard antisemitic tropes used to justify Hamas' invasion, including at American college protests, that ring of Nazi-era ideology.

"Now Zionists are supposed to be the root of what's wrong in the rest of the world," she said at the annual Westchester County commemoration of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in downtown White Plains.

Well over 300 people attended the Monday afternoon event on Martine Avenue, next to the county office building, and there was a strong police presence. William Schrag, president of the Westchester Jewish Council, said it was a Yom Hashoah unlike any other — because of the "eerie shadow hanging over us."

Numerous warnings about rising antisemitism in the U.S., and the need to fight against it, draw sustained ovations from the crowd. Several speakers drew links between the rise of Nazi Germany and recent condemnations of Israel; no one mentioned Israel's ongoing shelling of Gaza.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman for the Democratic nomination, in part because of Bowman's criticism of Israel, talked about the small steps that made possible Adolph Hitler's rise to absolute power. Latimer said that in the U.S. today, we are being told that "black is white again and turmoil is acceptable."

He closed by asking: "What are we prepared to do to make sure this doesn't happen again?" The crowd cheered.

Bowman's campaign, asked for a comment, offered his social media message marking Yom Hashoah and remembering "6 million Jewish lives lost to antisemitism, hatred, and violence.

"We must continue fighting antisemitism and all forms of hatred, continue our work to bring the hostages home safely, and move towards peace."

Concerns about college protests

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said the kind of hatred of Jews that motivated Oct. 7 is now "being taught in the U.S." He pointed to Columbia University students engaged in the ongoing protests there making threats against Israel and Jews. Calls to liberate Palestine "from the river to the sea" can only mean the destruction of Israel, he said.

"It is unconscionable that here in America, we have people celebrating this, chanting 'We are Hamas,'" he said.

Columbia, among the epicenters of the nation's protests, announced Monday that it will cancel its main graduation ceremony in favor of smaller ceremonies. It had already canceled in-person classes because of safety concerns.

Locally, students at SUNY Purchase set up an encampment Thursday. About 70 students and faculty were arrested, most charged with trespassing, after they refused to break up the encampment when quiet hours began at 10 p.m. Protests on Friday and over the weekend were allowed to go on without arrests.

At issue across the country, and around the world, is when criticism of Israel's use of force in Gaza crosses into antisemitism. Many insist that even harsh criticism of Israel — like calling the war in Gaza genocide — and of American support of Israel does not imply anti-Jewish prejudice. At the same time, social media posts about Israel and Gaza are increasingly followed by antisemitic comments.

Rockland County is to have a community-wide Yom Hashoah commemoration at 6 p.m. Monday. Then on Tuesday, there will be a program at the Rockland County Courthouse from 2 to 3 p.m., called "Cornerstones of Democracy: Civics, Civility & the Legal Community." The Rockland-based Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education is co-hosting each event.

The Westchester commemoration, presented by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, opened with a solemn procession of people carrying about 40 Torahs that were rescued from Europe after the Holocaust and now reside at Westchester area synagogues.

"The scrolls were hostages to history and hatred. They are hostages no more," said Rabbi Lester Bronstein of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains.

As the event ended, Schrag summed up best the feelings of many in attendance: "What happened in the Shoah will never happen again, as long as we have a strong state of Israel."

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester NY Holocaust commemoration warns of rising antisemitism