Interview with Rabbi Yochanan Fried
Director of the Torah Education Department
Israel Ministry of Education

VJ: What does the Fast of the 10th Tevet mean to you as an Israeli and as an educator?

Click to Enlarge The human tragedy of the Shoah

Well, firstly, this day is when I personally commemorate the Yahrzeit of my grandfather who died in the Holocaust. We don’t know where he perished - in which death camp - nor the exact date of his death. This is the day we mark the Yarhzeit of such people.

So, because of the personal angle, I and my family see this fast as symbolic of the overall tragedy that befell the Jewish people: innocent Jews who were killed, burned and butchered for no more reason than that they were Jews.

VJ: So there are educational ramifications?

Yes. This is very significant for our Jewish educational endeavor: There is still worldwide hatred of Jews and the Jewish people. We have to understand what that means and how to live with it.

VJ: What links do you see between classical associations of the fast and the Holocaust?

Historically, the 10th Tevet is associated with the destruction of Jerusalem and not with the annihilation of Jews in World War II. The Israeli Rabbinate created such a connection, however, and this year it has special meaning considering the severity of maintaining this fast on the eve of a Shabbat.

An etching of the Wall, 1900

The connection, however, is much more substantive than the technical bonding of two issues to a particular calendar day. The message is that it is incumbent upon us to consider the extreme importance given to the marking of sad and solemn days, no less than that given to the celebration of Jewish holidays.

VJ: How does this connection express itself in the Israeli educational system?

Ever since the Holocaust Memorial Day (for all the Holocaust victims) was assigned to 27th Nissan (April), the general education system in Israel has given much more prominence to that day.

However, within religious circles, special note has been made of the link between memorializing those victims whose graves are unknown and a day that has specific spiritual and ritual connotations: the fast of 10th Tevet. Consequently, religious educational circles tend to stress this day more than the National Holocaust Memorial Day.

VJ: Special prayers are said?

Click to Enlarge Jews in prayer

We organize tens of central events in major synagogues around the country attended by thousands of students. Also present are large numbers of surviving mourners of Holocaust victims who collectively say the Kaddish in the presence of these students. This is the central point of these memorial ceremonies. Indeed, in Israel, the fast day is also named for the Kaddish memorial prayer said on this day (Yom HaKaddish Haklali).

Rather than stress the formalistic aspects of the day, we emphasize the enormous, irreplaceable, loss of Jewish souls and scholarship, as a consequence of the events of World War II. We also educate towards the importance of building and rebuilding Jewish life and tradition, and of preserving and enriching the culture that was almost totally lost to us thousands of years ago - and in our times.