Toronto’s Holocaust Education Week. A vast undertaking? No more!

“I commend the Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre of Toronto (UJA Federation) for its outstanding leadership in organising this week’s educational programs. By bringing the accounts of survivors to people of all faiths and cultures, your efforts honour their legacy of courage, strength and humanity.”

– Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, October 2011.

In November 2011, I participated in Holocaust Education Week, which took place in Toronto and the surrounding region from November 1 to November 9. More than 30,000 participants were expected to attend over 130 multi-faceted events, scheduled to take place in churches, synagogues, schools, universities, community venues, retirement centres, libraries and theatres.

The central theme for that year was “Accountability. 50 Years Since the Eichmann Trial.” SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann was a key figure in implementing the “Final Solution,” Nazi Germany’s plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II. Eichmann was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina in May 1960 and taken to Israel to face trial in an Israeli court.

At that time, and in previous years, Toronto’s annual Holocaust Education Week was a vast undertaking. It was regarded as the largest educational forum of its kind in North America, possibly in the world. It was not uncommon to have about seventy volunteers, with the support of eight staff members of Toronto’s Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, responsible for the week. Sponsors or donors included the Consulates General of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Israel. Some events were in French, Hebrew and Russian.

Holocaust Education Week’s programme included topics dealing with the fate of European Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust, the Rwanda genocide against the Tutsi and its aftermath, as well as the untold story of how twenty-five to thirty thousand Jews were issued life-saving certificates of Salvadoran citizenship, facilitating one of the most successful rescue operations of World War II.

The programme also included how courageous Turkish diplomats in France were instrumental in saving thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

In addition, the Albanian rescue of Jews – Albanian Muslim families who sheltered and welcomed Jews until the war ended – were discussed by Albanian Jews, whose families survived, as well as by their Albanian Muslim rescuers.

The organisation Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto expressed that it was in its mandate to reach out to the Christian community. Their Holocaust Remembrance Committee often spoke from the pulpits during regular Sunday mornings. They explain that “dialogue will always be a big part of making life better for all of us, whatever our background or religion.”

Is there a lack of interest in the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s 2025 Holocaust Education Week?

But now, 14+ years later, sadly, we observe just a smattering of the dynamism and voluntarism, as well as the number of events that occurred in my time.

I acknowledge that times have changed. However, we Jews in the past were in the forefront and admired for our ability to come together and share in commemoration of significant historical events in our lives with non-Jews. And now?

We have done a disservice to our Holocaust victims.

Shame on us! I put to you that once again, today we have dismissed another significant opportunity to show ordinary non-Jewish Canadians how resilient we are in coming together with them in commemoration and in discussion of antisemitism, hate and intolerance. And yes, we have done a disservice to our Holocaust victims.

Who are our communicators? Have we lost the ability to communicate?

Communication is about giving and taking, asking and answering, sending and receiving. As I have pointed out before, Frank Luntz, the US-based political and business pollster, has said: “The ability of Jews to understand and connect with people transcends international boundaries. It is in our culture and in our blood… But over the years, our words lose their resonance, and our style and tone offend. We assert when we should inform. We reject when we should interject. We push people away when we should pull them in.”

In past years, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Holocaust Education Week brought a plethora of ordinary Canadians, Jews and non-Jews together.

Today, comparing the programme of events with previous years seems like a distant dream fading into obscurity. •