Dawn Eden Goldstein, "Was the Pope Wrong to Compare Refugee Centers to Concentration Camps?": Holocaust Trivialization Given a Platform by The New York Times

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On Tuesday, in a speech commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Trump declared, "Today, we mourn, we remember, we pray and we pledge: Never again."

Meanwhile, in a guest New York Times op-ed entitled "Was the Pope Wrong to Compare Refugee Centers to Concentration Camps?" published on Tuesday, Dawn Eden Goldstein sought to rebuff criticism by The American Jewish Committee of Pope Francis's comparisons of migrant and refugee holding centers in Europe with Nazi concentration camps. Goldstein, who tells us that she is "a Jewish convert to Catholicism," declares:

"[A]re parallels between Europe’s treatment of migrants and the Nazis’ treatment of Jews and other persecuted populations during World War II really such a stretch? In late 2015, The Times reported that, while the migrant crisis “is no genocide,” not since the “Jews were rounded up by Nazi Germany have there been as many images coming out of Europe of people locked into trains, babies handed over barbed wire, men in military gear herding large crowds of bedraggled men, women and children.”

The situation today is no less distressing. In January, Moria saw a spate of deaths as tents collapsed under heavy snowfall at the overcrowded camp."

As regards "a spate of deaths," Goldstein provides a link to a January 30, 2017 Reuters article entitled "Third migrant dies in a week in harsh Greek camp conditions" by Karolina Tagaris, which states:

"The third migrant to perish in a week was found dead in his tent on Monday on Greece's Lesbos island, raising alarm about the grim winter conditions in overcrowded camps that critics have denounced as deplorable.

. . . .

The death at the island's Moria camp follows those of a 22-year-old Egyptian and a 46-year-old Syrian who shared a tent and died days apart. Greek media reported they had inhaled fumes from a heater, but authorities would not confirm or deny that."

As regards "tents collapsed," Goldstein provides a link to a January 11, 2017 New York Times article entitled "Wintry Blast in Greece Imperils Refugees in Crowded Camps" by Liz Alderman, where, in a caption above the article it is stated: "Freezing conditions in Europe threaten thousands of refugees and migrants. Four deaths have been attributed to the weather in the last week, according to the United Nations migration agency."

Indeed, the seven deaths in these camps are deplorable and to be regretted, but how can they be compared with the 6,000 Jews who were gassed each day at Auschwitz (not taking into account those murdered each day at the Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka killing centers)? How can they be compared with the some 3,000,000 Jews who died during the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps from gassing, starvation, disease, shooting and hanging?

Abraham Foxman wrote in a 2014 article entitled "Inappropriate Comparisons Trivialize the Holocaust":

"Now that 69 years have passed since the liberation of Auschwitz, the danger is that an overuse of words — and inapt comparisons — will contribute to a lessening of the true impact and meaning of the Holocaust.

It must be our commitment to remember and to constantly speak out against those who would trivialize, distort or deny the Holocaust and to inoculate the public against trivialization through education."

By giving a platform to Goldstein, The New York Times chose to ignore Foxman's warning.

Irena Sendler, a Catholic Woman of Extraordinary Valor

Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day, and this is also a time when the good name of the Catholic Church is under a withering attack owing to criminal acts perpetrated by a small number of abusive priests upon helpless children. Although there are those in the Vatican who would blame the "New York Jewish lobby" for creating this scandal (they seem not to care that columnist Maureen Dowd was raised as a Catholic, and Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of The New York Times Company, was raised as an Episcopalian), and there are those in the Jewish community who have reacted rightfully with furor over this slander, this is exactly the time to remember Irena Sendler, a Catholic woman of extraordinary valor, who saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto from certain death.

Irena, born in 1910, joined the Żegota resistance in Poland, and owing to her work with the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, she was able to enter the ghetto to check for signs of typhus. Irena smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto in crates, boxes and suitcases and hid them with Polish families and Catholic convents and rectories. She made lists of the children's former and assumed names and promised that after the war they would be returned to their families.

Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, she was tortured and left for dead in the woods with broken limbs. Irena was forced to go into hiding until the end of the war, but immediately thereafter sought to reunite the Jewish children whom she saved with those of their parents who remained alive (90% of Polish Jewry was exterminated by the Nazis).

According to the Jewish Talmud, "To save one life is as if you have saved the world." If such is the case, Irena saved an entire "universe", and in 1965 she was named by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, as a Righteous among the Nations.

In 2007, at the age of 97, she was nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; however, as we all know today, following its recent award to President Obama, who has systematically ignored violations of human rights in the Congo, Iran, China, Tibet, Syria and Darfur, this prize has lost its luster.

I stand in awe of Irena, who passed away in May 2008, and pray that one day she will be declared a saint by her church. Meanwhile, she stands as a symbol of transcendent humanity, enduring faith, immeasurable courage and irrepressible love in these troubled times.

Holocaust Memorial Day: "Roman's Journey"

In Israel it is the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, and I find myself overwhelmed with emotion. Apparently the world has learned nothing from the events that occurred some 70 years ago, and once again global leaders remain silent as Iran threatens Israel with nuclear extinction.

Some 30 years ago I left a Wall Street law firm and found myself in the Israeli army. I am not a politician or privileged to shape international opinion, and my finances would surely have been more healthy had I continued to practice securities law in the U.S., but I do not regret for a minute having chosen this route.

I will probably be awake several more hours reading "Roman's Journey", the memoirs of Roman Halter, born in 1927 in western Poland, who miraculously survived the Holocaust. I have met Mr. Halter several times, but until today was unaware of the horrors he experienced as a young man struggling to return home to his family, whom he hoped had also survived the Nazi attempt to exterminate European Jewry. I read this book and remember, notwithstanding the daily tumult which characterizes Israel, why I am here. It could not have been otherwise.

Although some might view the words as banal, I find myself repeating them:

Never again!

[There is no mention of Holocaust Memorial Day in today's online homepage of The New York Times; however, there is a link to an editorial, entitled "The Nuclear Security Summit", which states, "The meeting needs to produce concrete deadlines, working groups and future meetings to measure progress." My response, if the Times deigns to post it:

The Times editorial board would have us believe that the prevention of nuclear terrorism "will take strong and consistent leadership by Mr. Obama and like-minded leaders, beginning with strong commitments at this week’s summit meeting."

"Strong and consistent leadership" from Obama? Consider the following Obama administration timeline:

“I would never take a military option off the table.” Barack Obama on Iran, throughout the 2008 presidential campaign.

"We are not taking any option off the table at all.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 2009 Senate confirmation hearing, responding to a question concerning the Iran military option.

"What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to [Iran] how isolated they are from the international community as a whole." Barack Obama, Press Conference, February 9, 2010

"Obviously, we don't want Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, but we are not planning anything other than going for sanctions." Hillary Clinton, Al-Arabiya television, Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

"We are moving expeditiously and thoroughly in the Security Council, I can't give you an exact date, but I would assume some time in the next several months." Hillary Clinton on her plane to Buenos Aires, responding to the question when the U.S. might seek sanctions against Iran, March 2, 2010.

Obama declares that he wants a new U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran "that has bite", but is no longer willing to adhere to the strategy of seeking "crippling sanctions" previously sought by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. President Obama, April 5, 2010.

How is that for "strength and consistency"?

Incidentally, there was an article in Israel's leading economic newspaper "Globes" on April 9 with the headline (my translation): "U.S. Encouraged Netanyahu to Cancel His Participation in the Nuclear Security Summit", but no mention of this in the Times editorial.]