Jews in Ireland face hostile atmosphere, commemoration for Holocaust survivor told

Jews in Ireland have a problem, a special commemoration for late Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental in Dublin has heard. Attendees at the event in the Round Room of the Mansion House on Monday night were told by Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council, that Jews were facing a hostile atmosphere. “When young Jewish children come home from school crying because they’ve been called `baby killers’, when Jewish teenagers are branded `genocidal’ because of their identity, when Jewish students at lectures in our universities find themselves isolated, intimidated and excluded, Ireland we have a problem,” he said.Reichental was nine when he and his family were taken from their native Slovakia to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp by the Nazis in 1944. He survived when the camp was liberated by the British in 1945. As many as 35 members of his extended family died in concentration camps. READ MOREReichental lived in Ireland since 1959 and over recent years spoke to an estimated 90,000 children in schools all over Ireland about the Holocaust. He wrote two related books and made three documentaries with director Gerry Gregg.“We honour Tomi, not merely by remembering what happened and what he did during his life, but by refusing to look away from what is happening now. Never again must mean something. We remember and we refuse to look away, this is the message Tomi left us,” Cohen said.Reflecting on his father’s life, Reichental’s son David said “sometimes the echoes of the past ring very loudly”. He said that since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023, he has “heard people explain away what happened with doubts whether some of the horrors happened at all, and I’ve worried about our safety”. He continued: “We know that this is not the same history, but it’s felt to me that people have been given permission to hate Jews openly.” Recalling author George Orwell, David Reichental said, “he spoke about when language narrows, when certain words become acceptable and others become almost unsayable, when stepping outside the accepted view begins to feel like an offence in itself.”It was the case that “the more often hatred of Jews is repeated, the more ordinary it can begin to sound. What people are prepared to say about Jews becomes what they are prepared to believe and eventually what they are prepared to do.” As a child in Dublin he remembered walking through open gates to the synagogue with his father. “As the years passed the gates were closed, then security guards were added and now, on high holy days, gardaí are posted inside and out. The gardaí are wonderful and I’m deeply, deeply grateful to them, but what other community has simply learned to live like this?”Others who took part in the event included Lord Mayor of Dublin Daryl Barron, Minister of State Thomas Byrne, German ambassador David Gill, Slovakian ambassador Viera Motesicka, Veronica Reichental, Rabbi Zalman Lent, Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder and documentary film-maker Gregg. The event featured music by Conor Lenihan, Istvan Barnacz and Joshua Reichental.[ Oliver Sears: If the children of Nazis can honour my family in Treblinka, we can all find a path forwardOpens in new window ]At the end Jonathan Reichental announced that the family was launching the Tomi Reichental Lecture Series to honour his father. It will begin next year.