The Tenth of Tevet: The Holocaust Memorial Day That Wasn’t

Since 1942, when Isaac Halevi Herzog—later the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi Israel—tried to arrange a day of prayer, fasting, and mourning for the Jews of Europe, rabbis have debated whether a new day should be created on the Jewish liturgical calendar to commemorate the Shoah. (This debate is explored in Jacob J. Schacter’s online course The Jewish Meaning of Memory). Several venerable authorities objected even to the establishment of Yom HaShoah, arguing instead that the extermination of European Jewry should be included with the destruction of the two Temples and other national tragedies mourned on the fast of Tisha b’Av.