Just because you’re Jewish doesn’t give you the right to make Holocaust jokes

Although in theory I’m not offended if anyone depicts Nazis as blubbering idiots, I stay away from jokes about the Holocaust. Why? Because they’re not funny. I can’t seem to bridge the huge gap between the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust and a joke which is supposed to be funny and elicit laughter.

There’s an idea that people from a certain group can make fun of the group they’re in, but others outside the group aren’t allowed to cast ridicule on this same group. Therefore, Jews shouldn’t get offended by jokes about Jews if other Jews make those jokes. But what constitutes a group?

Regarding the Holocaust, the group would be Holocaust survivors. Other Jews, who weren’t direct victims of Holocaust atrocities, aren’t in this same group, and therefore shouldn’t be making fun of the Holocaust. Why? Because they weren’t there. They have no right even to pretend to be able to relate to something so devastating.

If a Holocaust survivor says something to make light of the Holocaust or jokes about it in some way, it’s because behind the joke is a lot of pain. The joke is a temporary distraction to cover up their enormous pain even just a little bit.

I find it in poor taste that a member of our community thought (or didn’t think – as the case would have it) that it would be in any way appropriate to infer that the chief rabbi, or anyone for that matter, could be compared to Hitler (yemach shemo v-zichro). Would the creators of the video like to be the subject of a similar meme? Probably not. I don’t blame the chief rabbi for not responding.