Bad manners at Warsaw Ghetto

Israeli youths in Poland ceremony score failing grade with disrespectful behavior

It’s been a while since I felt both so proud and so embarrassed to be Israeli at the same time, as I felt during my visit to Poland.

On the one hand, I was overwhelmed by powerful patriotic feelings, nationalistic even, when I stood under the blue-and-white flags proudly carried by Israeli students in the cold winds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. On the other hand, I was red with shame in the face of the behavior of Israeli youths during events that required a little respect and restraint.

For example, the impressive and dignified ceremony organized by the Poles to mark 65 years to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that was attended, in addition to Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Israeli President Shimon Peres, by the French foreign minister, representatives of the German and US governments, Polish senators, Holocaust survivors, war veterans, senior Polish army officers – and also hundreds of Israeli teenagers from across the nation who were just finishing an intensive journey through the death camps.

It is difficult to describe the huge Polish investment in the event. It is also difficult to describe the reverence shown by the hundreds of non-Israeli invitees to the speeches delivered by the two presidents, the singing of the El Maleh Rachamim memorial prayer, the Israeli national anthem, the Hebrew prayers, and the entire ceremony. It appeared that everyone was doing above and beyond in order to honor the memory of the Warsaw Ghetto heroes.

Yet at the same time, a few meters away, the jungle was going wild. On the Israeli side where the youth delegation members were concentrated, everyone behaved as though they were in the middle of some feast on a Tel Aviv traffic island. Only the barbeques were missing, but we had snacks, soft drinks, loud giggling, and screaming. Some students were lying on the grass while listening to their iPods. We also had group gatherings, a mini-festival of storytellers and jokers, short naps, smoking, whispers, the occasional game of “catch” accompanied by cheerful calls, nuts and seeds, and childish, embarrassing, and exaggerated panic upon hearing the gun salute. It was all there.

Teenagers have not learned a thing Indifferent teachers were also there, busy searching for a comfortable spot to lean on. We also had Education Ministry representatives with hands in their pockets who observed what was going on without doing a thing – overall, what we had there was a great shame. With the exception of several dozen youths who bothered to follow the ceremony and hold up flags, the Mideastern party continued according to plan and with no connection to the memory of the Jews who fought the Nazis.

One of the teachers explained to me that the Education Ministry is at fault because it did not bothered to organize chairs for the Israelis and the ceremony was long. Another teacher said the students had trouble following the speeches in Polish, and therefore lost interest in what was happening around them. This explanation could have been valid had I not seen with my own eyes the lack of interest and zero respect displayed by most students to the symbols of the State of Israel during President Shimon Peres’ speech – delivered in clear and fluent Hebrew. I will make no mention of the students’ attitude to the Polish national anthem and other speakers for obvious reasons of shame.

At the heart of Warsaw, a few meters away from the Rapaport Warsaw Ghetto monument, after eight days, three concentration camps, two ghettos, and dozens of stories – the Israeli teenagers proved on the last day of their journey that they have not learned a thing.

Perhaps they know more about the Holocaust, but in all matters related to manners, culture, education, and respect to others – they scored a humiliating failing grade. And with this grade they returned home, to Israel, to their parents and education system that have indeed put them on a plane to Poland – but sent them there without any moral baggage.

“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions.
Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”

-— Plato

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint”

-— Hesiod, 8th century BC

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