Especially now, in an era when antisemitism is on the rise again, we cannot afford to stay silent. Ninety years after my family fled Germany, an antisemitic incident now occurs there every two hours. We are witnessing a historic low: in France, in the UK, in Belgium - antisemitic incidents are soaring at an alarming rate.
But this new wave of antisemitism has taken on new forms. Alongside classical antisemitism, two additional variants have emerged: Islamic fundamentalist antisemitism, and the version wrapped in the "enlightened" discourse of the progressive left.
This latter strain cloaks itself in the language of "justice," "human rights," and "legitimate criticism of Israel." But behind the slogans lies a troubling phenomenon: Holocaust relativization, the blurring of Jewish suffering's distinctiveness, and its appropriation for unrelated political agendas, chief among them, the delegitimization of Israel as the Jewish nation-state.
In this process, Holocaust remembrance itself becomes a target. The assault on Holocaust memory no longer comes through denial, but by eroding its uniqueness. No longer is the murder of six million Jews denied, but it is submerged in a "universal context." The Holocaust is no longer a unique event, it becomes merely "a reference point." This is a cultural hijacking, not through force but through drip-feed; not violently, but through academia, symposia, and footnotes.
Empty moral lenses
Draped in academic robes, armed with Kant quotes, and donning hollow moral lenses - the looters of memory culture preach lofty ideals of "humanism," "universalism," and "global ethics." Under these noble banners, they seek to erase the Holocaust's uniqueness, strip it of its Jewish identity, and place it alongside a lineup of historical tragediesm as though it were just another footnote in the archive of history.
Photo: Rya Inman / Columbia Daily Spectator
And it is no coincidence that this is happening now, in an age where the struggle is not only over memory, but over the very definition of antisemitism. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition, which seeks to combat antisemitism, is countered by the "Jerusalem Declaration," with its universalist undertones.
A day to mark the fight against antisemitism? Is matched by a day for the fight against Islamophobia. They aim to dull the distinctiveness of Jew-hatred, to lump it together with all other forms of racism, as though all suffering were equal. But history has taught us otherwise.
There is nothing more cynical than the fact that the leaders of this hijacking effort are not Holocaust deniers, but often anti-Zionist Jews. For pseudo-academics such as Omer Bartov and Omri Boehm, Holocaust memory is not a moral cornerstone - it is a burden.
In their eyes, Holocaust commemoration has become a cumbersome and unnecessary "golden calf," preventing us from attaining an idealized future free of moral obligations to Jewish uniqueness. For them, current universal injustices or collective traumas are more clear-cut, more relevant, and most importantly, more aligned with their post-colonial worldview.
The public memory fund
This discourse is not taking place on the margins, it is at the heart of the establishment: in faculties, at conferences, in academic journals. The gatekeepers remain silent, and sometimes even collaborate. They allow this hijacking to proceed quietly, enabling others to pillage the public memory fund. That is why I saw a moral obligation to prevent Omri Boehm from speaking at the Buchenwald liberation memorial ceremony. Any attempt to normalize this hijacking, to present it as "legitimate criticism of Israel," will be met with unflinching resistance.
After 2,000 years of persecution and annihilation, we rose from the ashes and established our national home in Israel, vibrant and resolute. We will not stand idly by in the face of the "enlightened" memory looters and gatekeepers who fell asleep on their watch. For the sake of the past and the future, we will stand tall and proud, and we will thwart every effort to defile and dishonor the memory of the Holocaust and its victims. We are the sentinels of memory.
Ron Prosor is the Israeli ambassador to Germany. He previously served as Israel's ambassador to the UK and ambassador to the UN.
