On Monday night, Rabbi Leighton and I were invited to join a special presentation and tour of the exhibit “Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away.” The exhibition features artifacts and materials — never before seen in North America — on loan from more than 20 institutions and private collections around the world.
Before we toured, we heard from the creators and curators of the exhibit. I was on the edge of my seat listening to Dr. Michael Berenbaum, a world-renowned scholar of the Holocaust, one of the creators of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and a curator of this exhibit. He said, “People must go to Auschwitz, and this man (pointing at Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywinski - Director, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum) decided that Auschwitz must go to the people.”
What stood out to me most is when he told us that the exhibit’s title is “a scandal.” The themes the exhibit explores: nationalism, populism, antisemitism, political oppression, forced labor, cultural genocide, are not themes from long ago and far away. Berenbaum concluded by saying “the scandal in our world is that Auschwitz is not long ago and not far away.”
Just (recently), here in Overland Park, officials and faith leaders gathered at the Jewish Community Center Campus because they needed to denounce hatred and make a call to end antisemitism. It is not long ago or far away. It is right now in our very own backyards. Hatred of people who are different permeates our world. If it’s not antisemitism, it’s racism. If it’s not racism, it’s Islamophobia. If it’s not Islamophobia, it’s homophobia. If it’s not homophobia, it’s one of the many other versions of hate that exist.
When my 4-year-old daughter, Eliana, meets new people she doesn’t see differences, she sees potential for a new playmate. Adults need to learn from our children. We need to learn not to see differences as stumbling blocks, but use our differences to grow stronger.
Martin Buber, a prominent 20th century philosopher, religious thinker, political activist and educator, taught, “every person born in this world represents something new. Something that never existed before. Something original and unique.” Therefore each of us and our different beliefs, skin tones, sexual orientations, etc… need to exist. So what better way is there than to move beyond even acceptance and turn to celebration?
One day maybe, we will be able to say that this rhetoric is long ago and far away.
