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Last update - 00:00 16/04/2007
Spain before Poland
By Fania Oz-Salzberger

"Best to stay at home, close the cash register of the trips to Poland, and start learning history from the beginning," writes Avirama Golan ("Enough of the shock treatment," Haaretz, April 10, 2007). I second almost every word. Auschwitz was not meant for 17-year-old Israelis, certainly not in rowdy groups of school pupils.

Some of them are serious boys and girls with an open mind, some of their escorts are good and devoted educators, and some schools have done excellent preparation work. But not all. Concentration camps are not appropriate for a first trip overseas, at an age when hormones are active, and as part of a class.

The existing arrangement - and this is written with respect and admiration for the initiators and organizers - is good for neither teenagers nor for Auschwitz. Auschwitz must be visited at the age of 30. Quietly. After a great deal of reading. Without mobile phones beeping and the sugar rush derived from the mini-bar at the hotel in Warsaw.
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But to "learn history from the beginning" - Jewish and world history that demonstrates, as Golan suggests, how Jewish history is interwoven with the history of mankind and culture - one must not necessarily "stay at home." Take the money, enlist more supportive foundations, and take select groups of Israeli pupils to Andalusia, in the south of Spain. Because there, in many ways, begins the story that ends in Auschwitz: the story of Jewish Europe, which is both an Ashkenazi and Sephardi tale.

At "Granada of the Jews" they will visit Alhambra and hear about Shmuel Hanagid. In Cordoba they will visit the Great Mosque, the beautiful synagogue and see the statue of Maimonides. In Toledo they will get to know the Jewish Museum of Spain and read a text of Yehudah Halevy, engraved, for a change, on stone. One may even dare to sneak a poem of Lorca's into the program.

Israeli pupils, both Jewish and Arab, would take this trip together. Only those who studied and prepared for it seriously and with interest would be chosen to go. Their parents will pay only a symbolic fee, a sign of commitment to the values it represents. All the rest would be financed by the Education Ministry, the Spanish government - some of whose officials have displayed considerable interest in this idea - and independent foundations.

The birthright Israel project, which brings young Jewish Americans to Israel free of charge, may be interested in adding its participants to the Israeli groups discovering their joint past in one of the large joint cradles of the three civilizations, in an era in which they exchanged ideas, not only loathing.

Somewhere in Andalusia there was a small paper mill at the end of the Middle Ages. It was at that time that the ancient Chinese technology arrived, after a long journey across Asia and North Africa, and entered Europe via Spain. Without it Gutenberg would not have been able to print. And lo, that mill was operated by two partners, a Jew and a Muslim. Their clients from the north were Christians. This story, symbolic rather than historic, should be told to 17-year-old Jewish and Arab Israelis. You have to be a great pessimist not to tell it. It is a story of life and rejuvenation. It would not overshadow the story of the persecuted and the murdered, but empower it greatly.

Woe to a Jewish-Israeli identity that relies only on the ashes of the crematoria. Our European past also includes a thousand years of life, art and the spreading of knowledge. Would Israeli youngsters continue to line up to obtain European passports if they were exposed to the major Jewish role in the construction of modern Europe? I doubt it.

But instead of wrapping themselves up in the Israeli flag like a deceased person, they could walk the streets of Venice and Krakow and Thessaloniki and search for signs of life, not only traces of death. Our fathers had a place here, they will say. Our fathers helped establish modern literature, art and science. They and our mothers knew how to read better than most Europeans during most of Europe's history. In their wanderings they transported with them innovations and ideas, not merely holy scriptures and memories of deportation.

And Europe did not always reject and persecute them. Maimonides was taught in Paris, Moses Mendelssohn in Berlin, the Talmud in Amsterdam. As for the justification for establishing modern Israel - that they will have to deduce for themselves. They are intelligent enough.
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  1.   Away from the deathpath 10:30  |  Esther Thomas 16/04/07
  2.   writer`s ignorance of history 10:36  |  Avi 16/04/07
  3.   Beautiful 10:37  |  Adina 16/04/07
  4.   AND I FOUND ONE ROSE IN AFIELD OF THISTLES 11:03  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  5.   Are we afraid of our heritage? 11:03  |  Ilan 16/04/07
  6.   Avi 11:10  |  Esther Thomas 16/04/07
  7.   In Memorium. 11:12  |  PETERSM 16/04/07
  8.   Bereshit---Auschwitz 11:21  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/04/07
  9.   Spanish / Nazi persecutions not comparable 11:40  |  Semsem 16/04/07
  10.   out of the respect for the holocaust 11:48  |  Lena 16/04/07
  11.   #9 SEMSEM THE OBJECTS WERE DIFFERENT 12:01  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  12.   #6 Esther: even Ms Oz-Saltzberger admits its a story 12:05  |  Avi 16/04/07
  13.   ALL European teenagers should visit Auschwitz 12:10  |  Gea 16/04/07
  14.   @5, ilan. totally agree 12:28  |  vladimir 16/04/07
  15.   Thanks to Avi 13:00  |  Esther Thomas 16/04/07
  16.   GEA 13:05  |  Esther Thomas 16/04/07
  17.   Have I gone to haven? 13:16  |  Benlolo 16/04/07
  18.   Avi # 2 and ignorance 13:23  |  whodey 16/04/07
  19.   rediculous 13:26  |  Seth 16/04/07
  20.   Semsem 13:35  |  Benlolo 16/04/07
  21.   Maimonides was never in France 13:41  |  eric 16/04/07
  22.   to # 9 Semsen 13:51  |  Harald 16/04/07
  23.   #18 Whoodey on Maimonides 14:17  |  Hastaroth 16/04/07
  24.   "relies only on the ashes of the crematoria"? What nonsense 14:34  |  AA 16/04/07
  25.   priorities 15:08  |  katherine 16/04/07
  26.   #22 NOT ALTOGETHER TRUE HARALD !! 15:18  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  27.   There are OTHER Israeli teenagers 15:19  |  Jay A Friedman 16/04/07
  28.   #22. Moslems in Spain also persecuted the Jews 16:04  |  Semsem 16/04/07
  29.   J.A. Friedman 16:04  |  Benlolo 16/04/07
  30.   Never 16:09  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/04/07
  31.   where to go for education? 16:34  |  expat 16/04/07
  32.   Harald, wrong: 1st massacre of Jews in Spain was by Moslems 16:35  |  Jake 16/04/07
  33.   # 18 Jews & Muslims & the Golden Age in Iberia 16:39  |  Avi 16/04/07
  34.   # 31 expat. THAT IS WHY YOU ARE SUGGESTING SUCH INANITIY... 17:50  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  35.   POLAND SAVED JEWS AND THEIR CULTURE 17:50  |  Alvi 16/04/07
  36.   whodey, RE "under Muslim rule" 17:55  |  Jake 16/04/07
  37.   spain before poland 18:14  |  margaret 16/04/07
  38.   # 35 Alvi. SO YOU THINK POLAND SAVED THE JEWS & THER CULTURE EH? 18:17  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  39.   #35 and from the LKATE 19TH CENTURY ONWARDS JEWS WERE ESCAPING TH 18:40  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  40.   #38 YES 18:59  |  Alvi 16/04/07
  41.   spain before poland 19:10  |  jed nightingale 16/04/07
  42.   7#YOU DONT SAY PETER??? 19:20  |  alonitzafoni 16/04/07
  43.   # 25 katherine. priorities. 19:22  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  44.   Respectfully, But Vehemently Disagree 19:24  |  Tod Zuckerman 16/04/07
  45.   Who were Nazi`s? 19:43  |  mark sajnacki 16/04/07
  46.   GREAT ARTICLE! THANKS 20:02  |  Rob 16/04/07
  47.   # Alvi. NO I HAVE NOT BEEN INDOCTRINATED WRONG THERE. 20:05  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  48.   # 40 Alvi. ABOUT THE POLES SAVING THE JEWS... 20:19  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  49.   Esther Thomas 20:37  |  Gea 16/04/07
  50.   Pgonzalez 20:45  |  Pablo Gonzalez 16/04/07
  51.   Alonitzafoni.More gutless behaviour.Leeds University just cancel 21:06  |  PETERSM 16/04/07
  52.   #48 Karh 21:35  |  mark sajnacki 16/04/07
  53.   GEA 22:13  |  Esther Thomas 16/04/07
  54.   #47 You generalize your ngtv views on Poles, that`s called racism 22:13  |  Alvi 16/04/07
  55.   Alvi. Grow up. 22:17  |  Zardos 16/04/07
  56.   # 52 mark sajnacky. OKAY,MORE THAN MY TEN FINGERS ,BUT... 22:21  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  57.   The Problem is two fold 22:34  |  Danite 16/04/07
  58.   #45 MARK NEEDS TO STUDY HISTORY CLOSELY 22:36  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  59.   Avirama Golan and Oz-Saltsberger 22:49  |  Esther 16/04/07
  60.   Kath #48 - About Poles Saving Jews 22:53  |  Mimi 16/04/07
  61.   #56 Kath Jews and Poles in WW II by Stefan Korbonski 23:19  |  mark 16/04/07
  62.   #55. So, it was Germans not Poles! 23:28  |  Alvi 16/04/07
  63.   #58 About studying history ... 23:35  |  mark sajnacki 16/04/07
  64.   to all those pole-haters 23:36  |  saul 16/04/07
  65.   Alvi, learn about the Jews of Radzilow and their fate: 23:39  |  Mimi 16/04/07
  66.   # 60 Mimi.NOW YOU ARE ADDING THE OTHER ONES 23:40  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  67.   # 35 Alvi on Poland and the Jews 23:50  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  68.   # 58 Paul Harris. PAR FOR THE COURSE DEAR PAUL... 23:51  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  69.   The Holocaust industry and Zionism 23:51  |  Joe 16/04/07
  70.   Kath, you are wrong... 23:55  |  Chris 16/04/07
  71.   Gibberish 00:26  |  Jakob 17/04/07
  72.   Another pathetic attempt at Holocaust denial 01:10  |  Herbert Kaine 17/04/07
  73.   Israelis should be Humane with... 01:26  |  Ali 17/04/07
  74.   Hide behind Holocaust 01:35  |  J 17/04/07
  75.   ## 56 & 58 About studying history and numbers... 02:03  |  mark sajnacki 17/04/07
  76.   #55. So, it was Germans! so, why you blame Poles? 02:12  |  Alvi 17/04/07
  77.   Jewish hated Poles of Jewish etnicity. 02:29  |  Moshski 17/04/07
  78.   Haaretz talkbackers all.MY POST TO #60 MIMI 02:31  |  Kath` 17/04/07
  79.   The Holocaust industry and Zionism 07:18  |  Joe 17/04/07
  80.   Irrelevant how well Jews were treated in Spain... 08:31  |  john 17/04/07
  81.   second voice from a Pole 08:32  |  Paul 17/04/07
  82.   To Alvi - Jewish professors 08:43  |  Justine 17/04/07
  83.   It`s not `the Poles`, but the Catholic Church 08:59  |  Paul Henzen 17/04/07
  84.   Fania Oz-Salzberger 09:23  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 17/04/07
  85.   Jewish-Israeli identity that relies only on the ashes of the crem 09:34  |  samos 17/04/07
  86.   Educational visits 09:41  |  Joseph 17/04/07
  87.   Alvi. Germans AND Poles to blame 11:52  |  Zardos 17/04/07
  88.   To Zardos 19:48  |  Justine 17/04/07
  89.   # 88 Justin. re:Zardos........YOU HAVE GOT IT WRONG.. 20:33  |  Kath` 17/04/07
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