Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director for the Coalition for Jewish Values, expressed dismay over the disruption of the March of the Living by pro-Palestinian protesters, highlighting a troubling trend of politicizing solemn events.
Menken voiced his concerns to Newsmax, stating, "I have to admit that on Oct. 8th, I was indeed surprised that immediately Students for Justice in Palestine, which means 'just us' in Palestine, eject all the Jews, that that organization would declare itself part of Hamas. But now, I think we're no longer surprised."
He discussed his concerns on "The Chris Salcedo Show," "Today, there was the March of the Living, where a group of Jewish students go to Auschwitz to remember what happened there, and today they were disrupted by a so-called pro-Palestine protest, and I think that really says it all.
"It's entirely actually sadly appropriate that they would disturb the March of the Living at Auschwitz with a pro-Palestine protest because it has nothing to do with Palestine; these people don't actually care about Palestinian lives; they just care about their hatred and blaming the Jews," he added.
A cohort of pro-Palestinian demonstrators brandishing Palestinian flags lined the roadway as participants bearing Israeli flags marched from the Auschwitz site in Oswiecim, Poland, to Birkenau, about 2 miles away. The locale, once under German occupation during World War II, now serves as a memorial overseen by the Polish state, as reported by America Magazine.
Menken reflected on the historical parallels, stating, "A professor on a college campus told me about eight years ago, he said, 'the reason why you've got protests' and, of course, at eight years ago that there was an entirely different level to what we have now, but even then, he said, 'What we're hearing out of students, you never heard that 40 years ago when the so-called occupation of the West Bank was a new thing.'
"And why didn't we hear that? Well, he said, 'because it's obvious to anybody who was old enough that this was the same rhetoric coming out of Germany in the 1930s.' So, if you don't learn that history, you are indeed doomed to repeat it.
"These people want to tear down the values that America was built on. When you think about it, it's really not about the Jews. It's about American values and the tolerance and acceptance of Jewish people, that's just a piece of it. But they want their racially divisive narrative," he added.
"Through this protest, we want to say that we bow down to the victims of the Holocaust too," said Omar Faris, president of an association of Palestinians in Poland. "At the same time, we demand an end to war, an end to genocide."
Rabbi Ari Berman, president of New York's Yeshiva University, led a delegation comprising representatives from Catholic, Evangelical, and historically Black colleges and universities.
"The message here is clear. The dangers of allowing hate to go unchecked are real. And we don't need to get to the cattle cars in order for it to be unconscionable and unacceptable," Berman remarked, alluding to the transport vehicles used by the Germans to convey Jews to their deaths at wartime camps.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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