New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind opposes remembering murdered gentiles in a newly approved Brooklyn Holocaust memorial. While admitting that millions of non-Jews were murdered in the Nazi death camps, he seems to think that pain is a commodity, and acknowledging that of others somehow diminishes one's own. He could not be more wrong.
"To include these other groups diminishes their memory. These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust," Hikind said following a press conference at the memorial. "It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims."
Why can they not be compared? They were equally murdered!
I appreciate the importance of acknowledging the unique way in which Jews were targeted for total liquidation by the Nazis, but to imagine that honoring that unique situation demands closing our eyes to the suffering of others, or that we own the words "Holocaust victims" is deeply insensitive, deeply foolish, or both.
New York's Mayor, Mike Bllomberg has been quick and decisive in his rejection of Hikind's position. But Hikind's response is interesting: "I don't know how many people in his family died in the gas chambers. My grandparents, my uncles, my aunts [did]."
Does Hikind actually believe that suffering is a badge of honor? Must one have a certain number of relatives who were gassed and burned in order to have a valid opinion? If the Mayor can find someone whose family lost more members than did Hikind's, will that end the debate?
At worst, Hikind's comments reflect a perverse fetishizing of suffering and victimhood. At best they refelect a genuine and deeply personal pain with which he continues to wrestle. We should all be able to appreciate that, and he should acknowledge that it renders him unfit to act as a good public servant on this issue.
I won't even address now, the many reasons that if we can not memorialize the Holocaust as a human tragedy, admittedly one in which Jews had a unique experience (though I imagine that each case of suffering is unique to the sufferer), it will ulitimately be as insignificant even to most Jews, as the Crusades. So ironically, it is precisely because I want the Holocaust remembered by as many people for as long as possible that I know Hikind is wrong and Bloomberg is right.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Hikind is wrong, but it should come as no surprise to anyone that he and too many other Jews view themselves as having a monopoly on suffering.
Dear Rabbi Brad,
Thank you for this article, it seems sad that one would say that my suffering was so much worse that yours, so to that end we won't mention yours.
That said, Rroma,Sinti Gypsies,Homosexuals,Jehova Witneses,Poles, physically handicapped,mentally handicapped,Righteous Ones ( who hid Jews) Deemed memtally deficient,by in a realationship with a Jew. Yes we lost 6 million of our families,how can we forget that the other 5 million lost their families as well !?
Thank YOU Again,&Shalom,
Shoshana
Hikind's rant is an appalling slap in the face of the millions of others who were targetted for annihilation by the Third Reich.
It is bizarre to think that acknowledging their suffering in any way, shape or form diminishes or denigrates the six million Jews who were murdered in the Shoah.
Sadly, suffering can sometimes lead to a kind self-pitying self-righteousness that insists that no one else's pain can be as valid or undeserved. Hikind has clearly succumbed to this.
I applaud you, Rabbi Brad for resisting this.
OMG in Heaven? To argue the point of suffering from being a holocaust victim is disheartening at best? The gentiles that died as well, is obviously horrible as well? But there is no end to that suffering from the targeting of Jewish people to this day? People are still invoking evil upon the Jewish people? Look at Mel Gibson and his display of hatred! Moreover we as humans? All humans should respect the people who have withstood that horrifying time in history, and realize it is an ongoing open wound? Trauma is a difficult thing to combat within oneself and in others? But to argue with someone that is a survivor of those hideous sub-human death camps is dispicable! That person is in denial? The obvious is which one was of them is right? I believe that they both are? Both suffer and both need to get a big hug? It is a shame to think you suffer more than the rest of us, but obviously, he feels he did, and he feels strongly enough to emphasize the fact that Jewish people were targeted? He is not wrong to tell the truth? But he is wrong to say that the gentiles did not suffer as much? Either way all suffered from that horrifying War, and in America we pronounce it well for our Soldiers memory is sacred who fought and died to free those prisoners, along with the British, etc? Shameful we have to argue about these things, we can resolve it by saying it was all wrong, and that the cruelty like that will never be repeated, preventing any more Holocausts to happen! Steven Speilberg as you know gave the money from the film Schindlers List to the prevention of any more Holocaust? And yet you have Mel Gibson with all his money and he hates Jews? But he has not donated a dime into that fund! He is a hater! And they exist, against anyone anywhere, it is a disease of the mind? And Mel Gibson's mind has been proved in a court unstable from his apparent alchoholism? However that is not the reason he hates Jews, he was raised to hate them as many others have een raised to hate Jews, Arabs, Blacks, Irish, etc? I would think the compassion should go where the trauma is? And to see further to examine the possibilities of the statements that were made to have more than two meanings here? In defense of the Jewish survivor I think he is protecting his people for the future, and no one complains about the African American defending and isolating for their culture and remembering the lynchings and cross burnings, and tortures? There were many whitemen, chinese, etc., that were killed in the same way but all and all no one denies the Black issues as much as they do the Jews? All the denials? and then all the touting about hatred for Jews? No one seems to donate or defend the Jews in number but the Jews? Even our President feels he can dictate policy to the country of Israel about the settlements? Appeasing the enemy with Poland all over again was the Gaza Strip to begin with! I think the gentiles are in denial and that they need to work side by side with the Jews and maybe then the Jewish people will include them? Did anyone ever think of that and also why is it that they don't boycott movies by Mel Gibson? To help heal our society of Hatred? Why is it that the gentiles will join the Black movements in number and the Arab movements against the Jews? And to say it is a commodity like the Jewish man is selling his pain? Was a really cruel thing to say, for it was the Gentile that took the money and the gold from the teeth from the Jewish people in those camps! How dare he say that to anyone? However how many Jews are on Welfare? And why does everyone think they are rich? I rest my case!!!!
Members of my family smuggled Jewish people out of Germany during WWII with false documents, in monk's clothing. For that, a member of my family was killed brutally by the Nazis and some others were imprisoned and tortured.
To the best of my knowledge, none of the people they assisted to freedom ever returned to thank the surviving members of my family. Thank you, Rabbi Brad, for acknowledging the suffering of Gentile people in the Holocaust.
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