The Holocaust - Denial Ain't Just a River in Egypt

How appropriate something like this came up on the first evening of Passover...

My deep rooted anger about this is infinite.

An excerpt from an article at the UK website www.somethingjewishuk.co.uk

Link to article

"A small number of schools in Britain are dropping teaching the Holocaust for fear it may offend some pupils, a Government funded report by the Historical Association has found.

According to the report, teachers have taken Holocaust education out of the classroom for fear it may inspire some Muslim pupils to express anti-Semitism.

The report revealed that teachers are worried about having to deal with "anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils"."

HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT????? How about MY family that "had to deal with it"? Let's ask my cousin Cecile, who at 2 years old watched as her entire family was taken away to the camps. The only reason she survived was that a Christian family in the same building grabbed her from the staircase and shoved her in their armoir so that she wouldn't be found. The only other survivors from her family were her mother and sister who made it through the camps.

Or maybe we should ask the families of the 9/11 victims how they feel about "not offending" these students.....

How dare they - TEACHERS, ignore a significant part of global history in order not to offend. It is their JOB to impart knowledge and by not addressing this portion of HUMAN history are doing their students a great disservice - not to mention pissing off a lot of people.

I can't write anymore....... my head is about to explode.

Soooo...? What's the big Megillah?

Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination.

The story of Purim is told in the Book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai, who raised her as if she were his daughter. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen, but the king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity.

The villain of the story is Haman, an arrogant, egotistical advisor to the king. Haman hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech that is all too familiar to Jews, Haman told the king, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people's, and they do not observe the king's laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them." Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.

Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. This was a dangerous thing for Esther to do, because anyone who came into the king's presence without being summoned could be put to death, and she had not been summoned. Esther fasted for three days to prepare herself, then went into the king. He welcomed her. Later, she told him of Haman's plot against her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

The book of Esther is unusual in that it is the only book of the Bible that does not contain the name of G-d. In fact, it includes virtually no reference to G-d. Mordecai makes a vague reference to the fact that the Jews will be saved by someone else, if not by Esther, but that is the closest the book comes to mentioning G-d. Thus, one important message that can be gained from the story is that G-d often works in ways that are not apparent, in ways that appear to be chance, coincidence or ordinary good luck.

It is customary to boo, hiss, stamp feet and rattle gragers (noisemakers) whenever the name of Haman is mentioned in the Purim service. The purpose of this custom is to "blot out the name of Haman."

(Thanks to JewFaq.org)

Note: I've always found the Book of Esther as inspiring and empowering for women. I've also just noticed that the characters in the Megillah have taken on a completely different symbolism - those of people I actually know.