Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad Mineola Responds to NY Post Article (Brandon Cruz, April 19, 2026): “Survey Shows Shocking Number of Long Islanders Believe Jews Need to Just ‘Move On’ From ‘Exaggerated’ Holocaust”

You Don’t “Move On” From the Holocaust — You Learn From It

A new survey suggesting that a significant number of Long Islanders believe the Holocaust is “exaggerated” — or that Jews should simply “move on” — isn’t just offensive.

It’s revealing. Not about the Holocaust. About us.

Because when people begin to question one of the most documented atrocities in human history, the problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s a breakdown in something deeper: our relationship with truth, memory, and moral responsibility.

Let’s be clear. The Holocaust is not a matter of opinion.

Six million Jews were systematically murdered by a regime that kept meticulous records of its crimes. The evidence is overwhelming — documents, testimonies, photographs, confessions. Denial isn’t skepticism. It’s distortion.

And the idea that Jews should “move on”?

Move on from what — the attempted annihilation of an entire people?

We don’t “move on” from slavery. We don’t “move on” from genocide. We don’t “move on” from history’s darkest chapters. We remember them — precisely so we don’t repeat them.

So what’s going on here?

This survey isn’t just about ignorance. It’s about erosion.

Erosion of truth — in an age where facts are negotiable.

Erosion of empathy — in a culture saturated with outrage but starved for understanding.

Erosion of moral clarity — where right and wrong are increasingly blurred.

And that erosion has consequences.

We are living through a surge in antisemitism — on campuses, on streets, online. When the Holocaust is minimized, it lowers the moral barrier against hatred. It makes the unthinkable… thinkable.

Which raises an uncomfortable question: If people can dismiss the past, what stops them from repeating it?

We often respond by calling for more Holocaust education. And we should.

But clearly, education as it currently exists is not enough.

Students visit museums. They read Anne Frank. They learn dates and numbers. And yet somehow, a third of respondents can still walk away thinking it was exaggerated.

That’s not a failure of curriculum. It’s a failure of connection.

Because the Holocaust isn’t just about what happened. It’s about how it happened.

Ordinary people looked away.

Language dehumanized. Truth was twisted. And moral lines were erased — slowly, then suddenly.

If we don’t teach that — if we don’t make it personal — history becomes distant. And distant history is easy to dismiss.

But there’s an even deeper issue.

As the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, emphasized, a healthy society cannot survive on information alone. It needs a moral foundation — something basic, universal, and non-negotiable.

That’s where the ancient concept of the Seven Noahide Laws comes in — a framework not just for Jews, but for all humanity. Respect for life. Respect for property. Justice. Moral accountability.

The recognition that there is a higher standard beyond personal opinion.

Call it what you want — ethics, natural law, basic decency. Without it, facts don’t stick. Truth doesn’t matter. And history becomes vulnerable to distortion.

The Holocaust didn’t begin with death camps. It began when society lost its moral compass — when human beings stopped seeing other human beings as human.

That’s the warning. And that’s why you don’t “move on.”

You move forward — with memory, with clarity, and with responsibility.

Because the real danger isn’t that people forget the Holocaust.

It’s that they forget what made it possible in the first place.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)