The South Carolina Holocaust Council is divided after the chairmen cut the “political” remarks of the rabbi from the Auschwitz memorial broadcast – forward

Lily Filler (in the center), chairman of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust, adopts a state proclamation from governor Henry McMaster, recognizing the Holocaust during an event marking the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, January 27, 2025, in Colombia, South On Auschwitz, January 27, 2025, in Colombia, South Carolina. Later, Filler would cut a speech from Rabbi from the broadcast. (Screenshot via YouTube)

(JTA) – At least one member of the South Carolina Holocaust Council resigned after the chairman of the group edited Rabbi’s “political” speech in honor of Auschwitz’s liberation from the television broadcast of the event.

But the chairman of the council said in an interview that she was standing according to her decision and stated that Rabbi’s speech Sam Rose was binding the Holocaust to modern -day US refugee policies, LGBTQ people and book prohibitions were unsuitable for the event.

In South Carolina, controlled by the Republican state, members of the State Council for the Holocaust are politically appointed-for which the chairman was aware when she cuts the speech. Republican governor of the state, Henry McMaster, also intends the event.

“I felt we should be more lovely to our political appointment[s]And to our politicians who wanted to use this as a teaching event, “chairman of the board Lily Filler told his decision to cut off the speech from the renaming of the state public television station to Auschwitz’s remembrance.

“It was a political attack, slightly, for our government here, our civil servants,” Filler said. “They were wonderful for us. They support us in everything we do. I will not invest a policy in what I do, and we are far from politics. “

The dispute reflects a debate over whether the Holocaust Remembering should correctly involve solving modern problems and injustices.

OB/GYN and the daughter of Holocaust survivors who have been chairman of the South Carolina Council for the Holocaust over the last eight years, Filler said he called to cut Rose’s speech from the broadcast herself. She said she objected not to what he said, but to the place where he said it: in a television state event focused on remembering the Holocaust, with the Republican Governor and other employees present.

“I didn’t just invite him to discuss what he wanted,” she said, adding that she even instructed Chuck Todd, a Jewish political journalist for NBC and the leading spokesman for the evening to avoid politics. “I think everyone should talk freely, but you have to use good sense in time and be when you do this.”

She said she had invited Rose to give a definitive cadd to the blades mostly because his congregation was in Greenville and she wanted a Jewish clergy from all over the country.

Her explanation is not well found with Melinda Menzer, an associate of the survivors and a professor at Furman University in Greenville. On Monday, Menzer resigned from the 12-member Council Council, objecting to the cut of Rose’s speech.

“I’m really heartbroken for that,” she said. “Our job is to help the Southern Carolini recognize the appropriateness of the Holocaust and I believe that Rabbi Rose talks about it.”

Rose congregation at the Temple of Israel, Mener told Rose told her that she would deal with “modern problems” during his blessing, but that she knew nothing more than that. “I told him he was a rabbi and that was good with me. That’s what rabbis do, ”she said. During the event, Mener said he was “moved” from Rose’s remarks.

After reciting Kadish, Rose speaks of “hate resumption, of anti -Semitism, prejudice, of discrimination” and in an apparent reference to the Trump administration criticizes the policies “refusing any kind of refugees”. He also denied the bans on books in the classroom; South Carolina is one of the leading countries for the challenges of books.

Initially, when these remarks were shortened for the subsequent broadcast of South Carolina ETV, the PBS branch across the country, Menzer did not suspect that the advice was behind the decision – Filler did not consult a board. The study of the role of the President of the Council in the decision left Menzer to feel “betrayed”.

From Filler’s point of view, betrayal was everything he could feel when Rose delivered his speech. “It was a fairytale program until Rabbi Rose chose Grand,” she said, adding that McMaster, to whom she is one, makes “uncomfortable movements”.

Filler suggested hypothetically: if Rose had used the ceremony to blame Israel in performing a genocide, to compare Israel and the Nazis who became increasingly common to the left of October 7, 2023, “there were no half of the audience, at least, at least, At least to the audience, at least, at least, the audience, at least not be half of the audience, at least for the audience, at least not half the audience, at least the audience, at least at least there are not half the audience, at least the audience, at least not half the audience, at least not half the audience At least there are no half the audience, at least the audience, at least there are no half the audience, at least for the audience, at least there are not half the audience, at least the audience, at least there are no half the audience, at least the audience, at least there are no half the audience, at least there is no audience, at least there is no audience, at least there is no audience Half of the audience, at least in the audience, at least not have half the audience, at least the audience, at least there are not half the audience, at least the audience, at least there are no half the audience, at least the audience. , Be furious? “

The possibility of the Council, which distributes the educational materials for the Holocaust of Teachers throughout the country, to lose the support of the state government was first for the filler, as it considered the possible fall from Rose’s speech.

“We are very lucky here in the state of South Carolina to have politicians who have been on our side at all,” she said. “We made great interventions in this condition with the education of the Holocaust. And we sincerely hope that the state will continue its support for us. “

Speaking to the Jewish telegraph agency last week, Rose denied both the Council and ETV as a cowardly and defended his decision to use the Holocaust ceremony to reflect modern issues.

“I could not allow these civil servants to be self -governing and use this event as a platform for moral licensing, where they would justify their discriminatory behavior to other groups of people, while congratulating themselves and writing state proclamations on Holocaust education.” He said.

Filler has terminated his term as chairman of the board this June after the end of his eighth year. For one of her final publications through the Council, she said that she would handle the topic: “Teaching the Holocaust in a Complex World.”