To the Editor:
This week is Holocaust Remembrance Week. It is an important week, a time to educate about what discrimination of a people can cause, as well as a time to remember the families that were lost and parts of our culture that were taken away. This is a time when we can remind ourselves of the past and grieve so that when the week is over, we can move on with our lives. If it were not for this time set aside, we might not forget the Holocaust or it might become the center of our identity. What is the purpose of a negatively-based Jewish identity? It is to define ourselves by those who choose to hurt us. Judaism is so much more than that. Here on campus we are so proud of the weekly turn-out to Shabbat services and meals each Friday night, the speakers like feminist Rachel Biale, poet Yehuda Amichai, musicologist Miriam Dvorin and other equally positive events on this campus for expressing the amazing diversity of out Jewish culture. We are also proud of Becca Swartz and Gili Talmor for working so hard since the beginning of the year to put together the Independent Jewish Film Festival at Johnson House. It is unfortunate that the Oberlin Review focused so heavily on the festival in a negative light in the April 12th article, "Johnson House Hosts Jewish Film Festival." We hope that in the future we, as Jews, can look at ourselves in a positive light. Whether looking at the success of immigrant peddlers and families living in New York tenements, or Jews who have actively voted out of class lines, the survival of Yiddish literature and music, or the beauty of Sabbath songs, we have a lot to be proud of.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 21; April 19, 1996
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