New York – ZOA Says Parkland Survivor’s Use Of Never Again In Book Title ‘trivializes The Holocaust’

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    David Hogg, a student and shooting survivor from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, addresses the conclusion of the "March for Our Lives" event demanding gun control after recent school shootings at a rally in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstNew York – The Zionist Organization of America is urging a survivor of the Parkland school shooting to change the title of his forthcoming book, saying that by using the term “Never Again” author David Hogg “trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust.”

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    Hogg, 18, who has emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of gun control in the wake of the deaths of 17 classmates and teachers in February, has a forthcoming book titled “#NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line.”

    Morton A. Klein, president of the ZOA, said in a statement Tuesday that Hogg is “co-opting and politicizing” a term closely associated with Holocaust remembrance.

    “This inappropriate title displays an unkind and shocking insensitivity to Holocaust survivors, Jews, and all decent, human-rights-loving people around the world,” wrote Klein, who identifies himself as a child of Holocaust survivors in the statement. “Any attempts to compare the genocide of the Holocaust to modern domestic political issues in the US today is shameful and wrong.”

    Klein emphasized that ZOA does not take a position on gun laws, and that his statement “should not be construed as in any way lessening our shock, outrage and pain regarding the Parkland school shooting.”

    “#NeverAgain” became a Twitter hashtag for the Parkland survivors after one of Hogg’s classmates, Sarah Chadwick, used the phrase in a speech one week after the shooting. “Never again should a child be afraid to go to school,” she said in Tallahassee on Feb. 21. “Never again should students have to protest for their lives. Never again should an innocent life be taken while trying to gain an education.” She did not reference the Holocaust.

    Twitter users pointed out at the time that the phrase has been associated with Holocaust remembrance at least since the 1940s, and was inscribed on Holocaust memorials here and in Europe beginning in the 1950s. The phrase was popularized when the late Rabbi Meir Kahane used it as a rallying cry for the militant Jewish Defense League in the 1960s, and it has also became associated with the late Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel.

    Hasia Diner, a professor of American Jewish history at New York University, is among Jewish observers unfazed by the students’ use of the phrase. While some may object to the phrase “Never Again” being re-appropriated for gun control, it “does not mean that reaction is appropriate or reasonable,” she told JTA last month.


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    6 Comments
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    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    5 years ago

    Even AlterG would agree with ZOA this one time.

    5 years ago

    This David Hogg is getting to much attention and having a ball with it but not the ZOA. They shldnt be the one admonishing him. The Zionist shld be the last people standing to have a say in the holocaust. They were part and parcel of it. They should shush up and just go away and not attract unnecessary attention that only leads to antisemitsm.

    5 years ago

    SHOCKING INSENSITIVITY. Sounds like the ZOA hijacked the Holocaust. Nobodys shocked. It can be used and abused and nobody gets hurt. This is called over dramatizing stuff that shld just be ignored. Its a free America. This Hogg kid is a little out of line in general but nothing a holocaust survivor cant deal with. Cut it out.

    5 years ago

    Oh enough, already! ZoA is ridiculous. 17 people, including Jews, were murdered by that lunatic in Parkland. Where is the ZoA on the 2 Shabbat attacks on Chassidim in Crown Heights…. who, reminiscent of antisemitism in the Nazi era, were attacked purely because they are Jews? Conspicuously silent, as are all the other Jewish organizations… unless they can get on TV or in the newspapers. Am I right, Yossi Stern/Berel Sugar/Isaac Abraham?

    If anyone is doing the trivializing, it’s the ZoA. Stand up for Jews in AMERICA for a change. The writing is on the wall.

    5 years ago

    Actually, the saying was popularized in the US by Meir Kahan, whose 1970s book was called “Never Again.”

    5 years ago

    By saying that the use of “Never Again” is inappropriate, they are almost implying that they want it to happen again.