Natalie Portman tells the Jewish community to stop focussing on the Holocaust

[bodenbiscuit]

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/natalie-portman-says-jewish-community-should-focus-less-on-the-holocaust-10465577.html

The Holocaust is proof of the unspeakable evil that human beings are capable of and I don't think anyone should ever stop talking about it and I don't think anyone should ever be allowed to forget it.

I think also it's quite understandable that people don't want to forget why they have gaping holes in their family history. What an insensitive thing to say IMO! That doesn't mean I don't think about the crimes that are committed towards others, like Rwanda for example. Arguably though, the sheer scale on which an attempt to murder an entire race of people was made is unparalleled.

I hate it when Hollywood people get all political. They're paid to speak other people's words. If she wants to make a point, she should make a film about it. Otherwise, she should shut up.

I think she makes an excellent point. It is so important to teach pupils about the Holocaust. However, what she is saying is that schools should teach about other atrocities too, like the genocide in Rwanda. She goes on to say we should be teaching people to have empathy for all who have suffered. Again, a very good point/idea.

11m people? I thought it was 6m?

I am on the fence. She's right other atrocities are forgotten - I knew nothing of Rwanda until the film, very little of Congo, Haiti etc.
however, the Jewish people believe never forgetting means it's less likely to happen again - I think they're right. We should never forget, particularly as Europe starts to become more right wing again

The thing is, she has said it in relationship to the education she received:

Portman was born in Jerusalem and lived there until she was three, when her family emigrated to the US. In America, she was educated at Jewish schools and learned about the Holocaust and the events leading up to the birth of Israel.

If you attend a faith school then I would have expected such a school to prioritise events that have directly affected people of that particular faith.

I agree with her that other atrocities should also be taught at school but to minimise the Holocaust is not the way to go about it.

She didn't say that anybody should forget about it or stop talking about it.

It was a good point sensitively and intelligently made.

I can't see anything wrong with what she said. She's Jewish, born in Israel, educated at Jewish schools in the us, this is her perspective based on her experience. She says teach the holocaust but also teach of other atrocities, especially current ones, and use this to understand that atrocities happen between all sorts of people and why that is and what can be done.

I don't really understand the complaint with what she had said? She's talking about her own community, not as an outsider.

6 million Jews killed, 11 million including non-Jews killed in total.

Thank you lazy

It doesn't matter if she's talking about her own community IMO. I doubt she speaks for all those who experienced the hell of the concentration camps. Or those who never got out.

As I say, I completely agree that other atrocities are important. However, the Holocaust was an attempt to destroy an entire race of people on a massive scale and I think that is unparalleled.

Did you actually read the article xavierfondue? She's graduated way on from being an eyecandy actress! Good points, intelligently presented.

She says that Jewish people shouldn't think of themselves as victims. Well luckily for her, she wasn't there. That is the main issue I have with what she said. The things that happened to those people were so awful words can't even describe it. And the agenda behind the actions that took place was to wipe out an entire race of people.

I think she made her point sensitively and articulately. She was measured, unlike the article headline.

Where does she say that people should stop talking about the holocaust, be allowed to forget or forget the gaping holes in their family?

I can see how the info you've put in your OP actually related to the article?

*can't

*"I was shocked that that [genocide] was going on while I was in school. We were learning only about the Holocaust and it was never mentioned and it was happening while I was in school. That is exactly the type of problem with the way it’s taught. I think it needs to be taught, and I can’t speak for everyone because this was my personal education.

“We need to be reminded that hatred exists at all times and reminds us to be empathetic to other people that have experienced hatred also. Not used as a paranoid way of thinking that we are victims. Sometimes it can be subverted to fear-mongering and like ‘Another Holocaust is going to happen’. "*
So nothing like what you said in your OP then?
Xavier- Soooo. someone can't have an opinion because of their job? Pft.

I hate it when Hollywood people get all political. They're paid to speak other people's words. If she wants to make a point, she should make a film about it. Otherwise, she should shut up.

Did you read the article? Because that literally describes what she has just been doing and why she was talking about it!

The actress has recently directed and starred in A Tale of Love and Darkness, an adaptation of the Israeli writer and journalist Amos Oz’s memoir about the creation of Isreal.

The title of the article is really unfair IMO - what she says bears little or not resemblance to the headline and it completely undermines the context of the point she was making.

I've just read the full interview and I really can't see anything wrong with what she said.

The headline is misleading and seems to be written to generate clicks.

A subeditor has done her a great disservice.

I think Natalie Portman is incredibly thoughtful. I don't believe she was saying there is too much focus on the holocaust or that people should forget it, just that it should not be used to blind people into justifying atrocities against others. I agree with that.

A lot of people died in WW2 and it wasn't just Jews who were targeted - broad swathes of European/Western society were- particularly on the left and others who were considered 'genetically undesirable'. There was a lot of support from western banking interests and industrial firms for fascism. The demographic effects of that (descendents are terrified) are ongoing.

There is quite a good book on this by Bridget S Howe (If the West falls)- a former US intelligence agent.

And it was 20 million Europeans who died...60 million total casualties for WW2 (believe bulk were in China).

Having read the article, I don't see a problem with it.

Dd (11) has looked at the halocaust at least twice at school. But hasn't even touched on any others. She knows of them because I make a point of talking about the news with her.

These things still happen even though we don't forget what happened to the Jewish community. Dd was appalled to find out these things still happen. Learning only about the halocaust gives the impression these things happened only in the past. Which is not true.

I also don't see where she says people should stop thinking of themselves as victims. She is part of the Jewish community so views them as constantly worrying about another holocaust and them being potential victims of another one, whilst not appreciating that it is happening to other groups right now. She isn't saying there weren't victims, Or that's how I read it.

Not sure it's to do with her going to Jewish schools either. I attended a catholic school and was taught about the halocaust in detail. I am the same age as her and Rawanda was never touched on either.

All ethnic cleansing atrocities should be spoken about. I also think some empathy should be given to people in the here and now escaping psychopaths aka ISIS, who are being blocked from being treated as a war refugee.

demanjo.com/news/science/3277819/holocaust-survivors-pass-genetic-trauma-damage-onto-their-children.html.

The thing with epigenetics is studying holocaust survivors and their descendants have added hugely to the sum total of knowledge we have about human genes.

Howevver, it has also brought into sharp focus the many different ways jews born decades later are still suffering the effects.

I am the daughter of a daughter of a holocaust survivor, and have been involved in these studies. My unusual sleep patterns , and those of my mother ( more so) and my daughter ( less so) have been scrutinised.

I am told that we are a very clear example of a after affect of severe trauma in an ancestor in the female line, and these effects last three generations, as far as we know, but any children my daughter has will be part of the same study.

So, yes, it is good to understand why I sleep so erratically ( 2 hours on, 2 hours off last night, fairly typical)

however, it does keep the whole issue constantly in my mind, because it crosses my mind most nights, when I am up and about.

Other epigenetic affects in other families are more difficult to live with, and the social effects are with us all the time too, it is traditional to name new babies after dead relatives, for example, but the list of dead relatives to be remembered in my family will be supplied by the holocaust for some time yet.... a bone marrow transplant was looked for last year, but the individual needing it was an orphan adopted from a concentration camp, and has no known blood relatives..... and always at funerals, the minister asks for date of birth, place of birth, etc of the deceased and more often than not, we just don't know.

So yes, the holocaust is in the fore front of people's mind. You might say it is to an unhealthy extent, but for the most part we just live with it and get on with it.

I'm not sure how we could stop thinking about it, to be honest.