New Holiday

From MT:
"Victory Day Added to Jewish Calendar on Russian Suggestion"

A new date, marking the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9, has been added to the Jewish calendar, the Russian Jewish Congress said Wednesday. It is the first time in 2,000 years that a new holiday has been formally added to the calendar, according to a statement from the Russian Jewish Congress. "Jews are preparing for the first time to mark a new annual holiday — the Day of Rescue and Liberation," the Russian Jewish Congress said. "The initiative to found the new Jewish holiday came from Russia." Russia is preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to Allied Forces in 1945. Soviet troops liberated many Nazi death camps for Jews in Eastern Europe in the last years of the war.

 

^ I'm not sure how I feel about this. World War 2 is an important event for the Jewish people in many ways: ie the Holocaust and its aftermath helped the Jews to make Israel their own country. Rather than May 9th being made the date of remembrance it probably would have been a more appropriate date to choose what Israel chose: Yom Ha Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day.) May 9th is purely for the Russians and other former Soviet Republics. The US and most of Europe celebrate the end of the war in Europe on May 8th - because of the time difference. It's true the Russians and other former Soviets did a great deal to liberate the concentration and death camps they found in eastern Europe, but the British and Americans also liberated the camps they found in western Europe (ie Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, etc.) Choosing Yom HaShoah as the date to add to the Jewish Calendar (which supposedly all Jews and not just those in Israel follow) shows what the Jewish people - not their liberators - endured and the 'holiday' should be about the Jewish people. The world remembers Holocaust Memorial Day in January to remember when the Soviets liberated Auschwitz while Israel's Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is in April to remember the Jews that fought and died standing up to the Nazis during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Poland. One date (January) shows the Jewish victims having outside aid to liberate them while the other (April) shows the Jewish fighter taking a stand. Whatever date (January or April) that people remember the Holocaust on  - some remember it on both dates - doesn't matter. What does matter is that people remember the Holocaust and that innocent men, women and children were murdered. That's why I don't think including a Russian holiday to the Jewish Calendar instead of a Remembrance Day that is solely about the Jewish people is a good choice. ^

 

 

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/victory-day-added-to-jewish-calendar-on-russian-suggestion/520052.html