Israeli leaders participated Jan. 27 in a series of events in Israel and abroad commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ultra-Orthodox press reported these events with their own angles, focusing on the Grand Rabbi of Russia praying for the dead at the Jewish Museum in Moscow. Still, for the ultra-Orthodox, these events stayed in the realm of the media, and did not resonate in ultra-Orthodox classrooms.

Perhaps this will sound strange, but while Holocaust studies are integrated into the curricula of diverse Israeli communities, such as the Arab sector, the ultra-Orthodox actually do not learn about the Holocaust in school. Ultra-Orthodox students are not exposed to didactic education on the horrors of World War II. Many of them know little of the terrible trauma faced by the Jewish people.

Ultra-Orthodox do not commemorate the Israel-designated Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the 27th day of Nissan on the Hebrew calendar. They perceive it as a secular invention, so that an average ultra-Orthodox student is not supposed to hear of it. Most shamefully, even the religious Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorated by the Chief Rabbinate on the fast day of the 10th of Hebrew month of Tevet, which was declared “the general Kaddish day,” is not recognized by most ultra-Orthodox because of their long-standing ideological dispute with the state-sanctioned rabbinate. 

Add to this that a large segment of private ultra-Orthodox educational institutions do not teach history at all. Even those schools that teach what are called “secular studies” focus on Hebrew, arithmetic and perhaps English, but not history. Thus, the Holocaust is missing from the ultra-Orthodox curricula.