Albania Rediscovers Its Jews, and Their Rescue During the Holocaust

Home today to no more than a few hundred Jews, Albania has the notable distinction of having seen its Jewish population increase during World War II despite the fact that it was occupied by Italy in 1939. Liam Hoare examines Albanians’ recent interest in their country’s history of harboring and protecting Jewish refugees and the role played by the national code of honor, called besa—although Hoare believes there was more to it than that:

To look only at besa . . . ignores the other forces at work in Albania. There were those in the government who refused to turn over lists of Jews residing within the country’s borders and provided many Jewish families with fake documentation, [not just ordinary citizens who chose to hide Jews]. The role of the resistance cannot be discounted, either, for its two factions—one Communist, one nationalist—agreed [upon] a kind of neutrality on the issue of Albanian Jews. Other factors include the size of the Jewish population in Albania . . . and that as a Muslim-majority country, [it had] avoided the centuries of Christian anti-Semitism that provided much of the background for the midnight of the 20th century.

The recent rediscovery of the Albanian Holocaust experience quite obviously serves something of a political purpose, as [can be seen] when the Albanian foreign minister [told] participants at a breakfast meeting hosted by the World Jewish Congress and the Israel Council on Foreign on Relations the story of besa. . . . Still, the fact that Albania is producing fresh historical studies [of its Jews] and other cultural products like documentaries about the Holocaust also shows that, even in the absence of Jewish life, the historical relationship between Albanians and Jews has [significant] resonance.

Read more at eJewish Philanthropy

More about: Albania, History & Ideas, Holocaust, Righteous Among the Nations

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society