Despite the devastation the Holocaust wrought upon the Jewish people, Rabbi Israel Becker of the Orthodox congregation Chofetz Chayim says that inspiration can be found in the catastrophe. A son of Holocaust survivors, Rabbi Becker challenged students gathered at Hillel to think about how the dwindling number of living survivors would want future generations to remember their stories. Relating several stories in which Jewish faith persisted amidst unprecedented destruction, Becker said that the survival of the Jewish people is a testament to the strength and tenacity of the Jewish community, which was able to emerge from the Holocaust as a veritable force in culture and politics. Particularly powerful in its expression of Jewish faith was the story of an underground synagogue found at the Theriesenstadt concentration camp, which had walls inscripted with the words, “and in spite of all this, we have not forgotten Your name.” He also related a story in which the faith of the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was shaken by an incident in which a fellow concentration camp inmate was found lending other inmates a prayer book in exchange for bread rations. When Wiesenthal expressed his outrage at the man’s behavior, a rabbi pointed out the incredible commitment to Judaism demonstrated by the inmates’ willingness to give up their rations for the sake of a prayer book. Becker added that Hitler himself affirmed the Jews’ contribution to society by writing in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, that “I free humanity from the shackles of the soul; from the degrading suffering caused by the false vision called conscience and ethics. The Jews have inflicted two wounds on mankind: circumcision on its body and conscience on its soul.” From this quote, Rabbi Becker concluded that “the Nazis showed us in technicolor what a world without Torah is.”

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, spoke at the Student Union on Monday about his thoughts regarding this summer’s Israel-Lebanon War.
In the event co-sponsored by Hillel and the Department of Judaic Studies, Yaalon placed the conflict within the framework of a larger ideological struggle between Western civilization — of which he considers Israel to be a part — and Islamic militancy as represented by Israel’s foes like Hezbollah. “There is no longer merely an Israeli-Arab conflict or an Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he continued, citing Samuel P. Huntington’s theory of a Clash of Civilizations. Rather than a territorial dispute, he asserted that the root cause of violence between Israel and its neighbors is that “there are too many countries that are reluctant to recognise Israel’s right to exist as an independent Jewish state.” According to Yaalon, the changes that have shaped the dynamics of the current conflict have their roots in the 1970s, citing the 1973 Yom Kippur War as the last time Israel was confronted by a conventional armed force and Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as the end of an era marked by secular Arab nationalism.
The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session, in which students asked for Yaalon’s thoughts on Israel’s handling of this summer’s conflict with Hezbollah and how Israel should proceed in its dealings with militant organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas. While Yaalon said that he believed this summer’s campaign was “not considered a successful one” for Israel, the primary problem was “mismanagement at the highest levels” and not with IDF soldiers on the ground. He ended the discussion by reiterating the need to view the larger picture and to address the spread of anti-Israel ideologies. “The production of suicide bombers,” Yaalon concluded, “begins in the kindergarten,” and militancy toward Israel can be changed “only by pressuring states to undertake programs of educational reform”.

On Monday, October 16, former Israeli Defense Force Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, will be speaking on the University of Arizona campus. The event will take place at noon in the North Ballroom in the Student Union.
For those who will be unable to attend the first event, Moshe Yaalon will speak again at 7 PM that evening, at Temple Emmanu-El at 225 N. Country Club. In order to attend the evening lecture, registration is required; contact Jennifer Fink at 577-9393 x119 or jfink -at- jfsa.
Both events are free and open to the public.

Gathering amidst an intense Arizona thunderstorm, a crowd of roughly 50 students held a vigil behind the Student Union Thursday evening for the victims of the ongoing genocide in Darfur. The vigil commemorated the end of DarfurFast, a day-long fast to raise money for the area’s refugees.
More than 500 other schools held similar programming, Students Taking Action Now—Darfur (STAND).
Tiffany Tom, an organizer with STAND, told CampusJ the purpose of DarfurFast was not only to raise money for the refugees, but to provide “recognition of those who have lost all, even their lives.� Students broke the fast together with pizza and snacks, listened to prayers for Darfur from members of several faiths, and viewed a short documentary, Witnessing Darfur. Afterward, they lingered to light candles in honor of the victims, sign a petition urging Congress to pay attention to the tragedy, and look at a photo collage of scenes from the region.
Within the last three years, experts estimate that between 50,000 to 400,000 people have died as a result of attacks by government-sponsored Janjaweed militias, as well as starvation and disease. Approximately 2.5 million people have been displaced, and many survivors bear the physical and emotional scars of torture and rape. United States leaders George W. Bush, Colin Powell, and others have labeled the situation a “genocide.�
Many students involved with the campaign to raise awareness about Darfur come from a Jewish background, and many say that their involvement stems from their proximity to the Holocaust, whether through relatives or through their Jewish education.
Bryan Scott Fassman, a sophomore majoring in Sociology and Criminal Justice, told CampusJ that “ever since World War II, the world vowed to make sure the Holocaust would never happen again, to Jews or otherwise, and the world has failed.�
Illana Hearshen, a graduate student in the College of Public Health, echoed the sentiment. “Jews have seen what happened to our people,� she told CampusJ, noting, “We say it should never happen again, yet it is.�
Although STAND has only gained official recognition as a student club at UA this fall, the organization has been on campus for two years, funding events out of members’ pockets. They sold green “Save Darfur” bracelets, helped organize a Save Darfur rally on April 30, 2006, and helped out with YWCA workshops to raise awareness on Darfur through Hotel Rwanda workshops, which culminated in a campus visit by Paul Rusesabagina, upon whose experience Hotel Rwanda is based.

A DNA database to identify victims of the Holocaust in mass graves will be partnering with a University of Arizona lab, according to a report by Tarah Hackman in the Arizona Daily Wildcat. The Shoah Project, launched by James Watson, will establish the database using DNA taken from the cheek cells of Holocaust survivors, which European researchers will then compare with DNA taken from bones found in mass graves.

Geoff Goldberg, a molecular and cellular biology sophomore, is one of the students working on the project who said he recognizes the humanitarian significance of its mission. “This is totally different from just digging up old graves,” said Goldberg, who is Jewish. “A lot of Jews want to know what happened to their loved ones and want a sense of closure.” Syd Mandelbaum, who co-founded the project with Michael Hammer, is the son of two Holocaust survivors. Fransway said one of Mandelbaum’s most adamant goals for the Shoah Project is to use science rather than solely literature to educate students about the Holocaust.