Museum chair Stuart Eizenstat: What's at stake in this pivotal moment

By Stuart Eizenstat

I grew up in a thoroughly Jewish home in Atlanta, with a strong attachment to the fledgling and vitally important Jewish state. This was reinforced by having a grandfather and great-grandfather who lived and died in Israel, and a strong sense of safety as a Jew in America. The Jewish future was assured and promising, as Jews were increasingly accepted into the mainstream of American life.

Today, that world is hardly recognizable. Security guards are stationed at Jewish institutions in the US, a measure once only necessary in Europe. Rampant antisemitism and Holocaust denial is proliferating across social media. Israel remains surrounded by Iranian proxies in the Axis of Resistance – the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – whose stated goal is the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Loss of life on October 7 and in Gaza

Hamas intentionally started this war. It continues to hold hostages in brutal conditions, while deliberately putting Gazans at risk by hiding in tunnels underneath civilian structures and killing and oppressing its own people. 

And yet, Israel is accused of genocide as it defends itself against an attack that was the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. I strongly agree with the consistent and prevailing view of the United States government that Israel has not perpetrated genocide. 

I am deeply saddened that the war has led to the tragic loss of far too many innocent civilian lives, both Israeli and Palestinian, and a grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza that must be addressed immediately. Much more must be done to feed hungry Palestinian children and address the dire humanitarian needs of innocent people.

As my friend and partner Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, recently wrote, “Israel was forced into a just war it didn’t want. But war does not exempt us from the obligation to act with humanity.” 

Today, we are witnessing the weaponization of the terms genocide, Holocaust, and Nazi in order to attack the legitimacy of the existence of the Jewish state. This violates the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, is deeply painful to survivors, and fuels Holocaust denial and violent antisemitism, which are currently at their highest level worldwide since World War II.

The importance of Holocaust history education

Long ago, I decided to devote my life to public service to express appreciation to America, which opened its full opportunities to its Jewish citizens and Jewish causes. Growing up, I was ignorant of the dimensions of the Holocaust. It was an encounter with Arthur Morse, author of While Six Million Died, which described what the Roosevelt administration knew about the genocide of the Jews and failed to act, that led me to try to remove this cloud over the United States’s otherwise glorious role in defeating Hitler.

As the chief White House domestic policy adviser to president Jimmy Carter, I recommended the establishment of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel, which led to the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

I felt strongly that Holocaust history was essential for every American, so that they could understand how an advanced, educated nation like Germany, with a democratic constitution, could lead a continent-wide effort to systematically kill two out of three European Jews. It was my belief that understanding this history would help contribute to an appreciation of our own pluralistic democracy.

I also have been honored to work for presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and President Donald Trump, in both of his administrations, as the State Department’s special adviser for Holocaust issues, securing restitution and justice for survivors. 

I was deeply gratified when the Holocaust Memorial Museum opened in 1993 to critical acclaim, reaching millions from all walks of life, the vast majority of whom are non-Jewish. At that time, when I was ambassador to the European Union, I started to see a disturbing reemergence of antisemitism.

And then, just 30 years later, on October 7, 2023, Hamas, whose stated goal is the elimination of Israel, brutalized and slaughtered over 1,200 men, women, and children, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Over 250 hostages were taken. The immediate release of those still in captivity is of the utmost importance.

Today, decades from my optimistic youth, not only the Middle East but the entire world is in a much different place, where nothing less than Western values, which Israel embraced from its founding days, are at stake. 

But we have been taught by Holocaust survivors never to give up and never give in. As Israel wages its war of self-defense, we must continue to remember our own suffering over millennia and uphold our commitment to Jewish values.

The writer, a retired ambassador, is the chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.