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Philip Earl Steele

Now for that other fatally flawed “konceptsia”…

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Holocaust education in its many forms has long been a central pillar in the struggle against antisemitism and the largely indistinguishable plague of anti-Zionism.

But does such outreach work? Experience over the past 15 months bespeaks a conceptual failure.

Let’s take the Polish case, and only because it’s the one I know best. As I have described elsewhere, here in Poland the cultivation of Holocaust awareness does not translate into support for Israel. Since Oct. 7 the numerous nominally philosemitic groups have chosen to be silent bystanders to the current outbreak of anti-Israel hatred – while some have openly condemned the Jewish state. Indeed, even Holocaust scholars (of all people) may be heard to quip that Israel is guilty of genocide.

Commemorating the Shoah has not given rise to a pro-Israel lobby, but rather has fallen into the trap of theodicy – that is, it laments a universalized evil and ponders its origin. “Unde malum” (whence evil?) in the parlance one learns.

Israel needs a new konceptsia.

About the Author
Philip Earl Steele is an American historian based in Poland, specializing in the history of early Zionism. His recent book on Theodor Herzl, published by the Polish Academy of Sciences, is available in Open Access: https://publikacje.pan.pl/book/146852/on-theodor-herzl-s-encounters-with-zionist-thought-and-efforts-prior-to-his-conversion-in-the-spring-of-1895?language=en
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