Holocaust Remembrance Day

We spent the day today, both separate and together, attending lectures and workshops centered around the the theme of the Holocaust. There were discussions about the nature and purpose of the Israeli version of the holiday, a film about Polish Christians discovering their Jewish roots, and a lecture about what may have motivated individuals to murder, among others. Perhaps most interestingly, few of the activities involved discussion of the Holocaust itself, but rather looked at the present, the future, and the psychology of the perpetrators. This suits the Israeli holiday - The Day of the Holocaust and Courage - very well, as the State understanding of the Holocaust is as a catalyst for the formation of Israel, and as the ending of the "old" Jewish paradigm in favor of the new one: the self-sufficient, strong, independent Jew.