Yad Vashem Ramping Up Effort to Combat Holocaust Denial

To demonstrate the creeping impact of Holocaust denial, Ephraim Kaye urges a simple Google search. Type in the word “Holocaust” and see what pops up.

“Of the first 60 hits, a third are of Holocaust deniers,” Kaye says. “It’s out there and we cannot stop it.”

“We” is Yad Vashem, Israel’s venerated Holocaust museum, for which Kaye serves as director of international seminars. That makes him the institution’s top Holocaust educator.

Kaye, 58, was in the Bay Area this week lecturing about Holocaust denial and how to combat it. He spoke at Walnut Creek’s Congregation B’nai Shalom, among other places, on the scope of the problem, from the murderous views of Islamic radicals to the pseudo-academic claims of convicted Holocaust denier David Irving.

Because he is a teacher, Kaye quickly says that he is “an optimist.” He cites the thousands of teachers from around the world, Jewish and non-Jewish, his department has trained in Holocaust education.'

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