holocaust website

www.Aish.com
http://www.aish.com/ho

This website appears to be an excellent authority on the Holocaust. The site includes complete contact information including phone and fax numbers and a mailing address. They are located in Jerusalem and it appears that virtually all of their staff and content contributors are Jews. The website is an extension of their main organization, Aish HaTorah, which was founded in 1974 by Rabbi Noah Weinberg “with the goal of helping Jews around the world connect to the beauty and wisdom of their heritage.”

Aish.com provides articles, information, and advice on daily life for Jews on subjects such as parenting and dating and also offers opinion pieces on current events. One item of note had to do with the burka ban in France titled, “The Burka Ban and Us: How should Jews react to the French ban on the public wearing of the burka?” Traditionally and historically, Jews and Muslims have had bitter and violent conflict for centuries, and continues in present day Israel between organizations such as Hezbolla and Jewish settlers. However, the opinion from this article answers the title question with three very wise words: “with profound ambivalence.” The writer of the article, Jonathan Rosenblum, cites freedom of religious expression as the first reason and threats to orthodox Jewish observances such as shechita (kosher slaughtering) and religious circumcision. While he notes concerns for security Rosenbaum also states very bluntly, “Some of the arguments adduced in support of the burka ban could come back to bite us.” I found the writing and the opinion on this subject to be honest and sensible.

This website states that it logs over a million monthly user sessions and has 380,000 email subscribers. They update and publish new content daily which supports the currency of their information. Each article has a by line and many of the contributors are rabbis, adding weight to the authority of the site’s content. Aish.com also has multiple language versions in Hebrew, Spanish, Russian and French. To support these languages and be able to expand their content in this way leads me to believe that this organization not only has a lot of members; it also has very good resources and funding.

While there are quite a few ads on the site and they do ask for donations, there weren’t any “pop-ups” and the organization is a non-profit whose mission is to educate, inform, and entertain Jews.

The Holocaust Studies section of Aish.com contains educational articles with historic background of the Holocaust as well as emotionally compelling essays focusing on forgiveness as well as revenge. One article states, “the best revenge for the Holocaust is being a Jew and living like a Jew.” Another article titled “The Lure of the Dark Side” focuses on the writing of philosopher Hanna Arendt, who stated that Adolph Eichmann was banal and that evil also was banal. I read Arendt’s writings for a paper several years ago and wrote about it myself. I have to agree with this writer’s assessment that banality and evil are polar opposites – especially considering the atrocities associated with the Holocaust.

So my assessment on www.aish.com/ho - it is relevant, authoritative, and current. It also provides well written, thoughtful and honest articles to its audience.