The Israeli born actress said that the Holocaust, during which millions of Jews were slaughtered for Adolf Hitler’s ‘Final Solution,’ has too great a prominence in Jewish education, to the detriment of other human disasters.
‘I think a really big question the Jewish community needs to ask itself, is how much at the forefront we put Holocaust education. Which is. of course, an important question to remember and to respect, but not over other things,’ the star said.
To back up her point, Portman said that she was shocked to learn about the Rwandan Genocide, that occurred in the early 90s in Africa.
During this time it is estimated as many as three quarters of the Tutsi tribal population were killed by Hutus in an ethnic cleansing regime - but this is rarely taught in the same depth in schools.
‘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.’
‘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.’
But many Jewish scholars and Holocaust experts have criticised Portman for her comments, with Menachme Rosensaft, of the World Jewish Congress, saying:
‘The Holocaust is unique – not worse and certainly not more tragic – because of its enormous, continent-wide scope, because of the complexity and systematic methodology of the annihilation and the willing participation of such an enormously broad-based part of not just German but other societies.’
But he did agree with some of Natalie’s statements, saying that Jews should not ignore the suffering and plight of others.
‘World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer is adamant that we must never exploit or trivialize the Shoah as a political weapon or to score points. But we must nonetheless make Holocaust education and remembrance a key element in the development of Jewish identity, just as [the] Srebrenica [massacre] must be a permanent element of Bosnian identity and, for that matter, the Armenian genocide is an intrinsic element of the Armenian national identity.’
Approximately six millions jews were killed during the Holocaust, a genocide implemented by the Nazi party across Europe. In addition hundreds of thousands of Romanis, Poles, Slavs, Ukranians, people with disabilities, homosexuals and people of other faiths were also killed.