David Boyd

Bona Fide

[Etan Smallman @EtanSmallman]

To the progressives of Britain, the veteran anti-racist marchers and open-letter writers: how many firebombings and stabbings will it take for you to offer any act of solidarity?

And in the meantime, what do you want the Jewish community to take from your deafening silence?

[Dov Forman @DovForman]

This year, Holocaust Memorial Day, on the 27 of January, will pass quietly in hundreds of British schools.

Not because the Holocaust is no longer relevant, and not because it is no longer important, but because too many educators now fear the reaction it might provoke, from parents in their communities and even from colleagues in their own staff rooms. According to new figures released by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the number of schools marking Holocaust Memorial Day has more than halved since October 7.

That fact alone should trouble us deeply. It is a stain on this country.

Holocaust Memorial Day exists to remember the six million Jewish men, women and children who were systematically murdered for no reason other than that they were born Jewish. It is not a political gesture. It is not a commentary on today’s conflicts. It is an act of human memory, and a moral one at that. When we begin to treat remembrance as something that must be justified, balanced or quietly avoided, we reveal how fragile our commitment to it has become.

My great-grandmother, Lily Ebert, survived Auschwitz. For decades of her life, she devoted herself to speaking to people all over the world about what she had witnessed and endured in what she called “hell on earth.” She answered their questions, listened to their fears, and tried to explain, with remarkable strength and gentleness, how ordinary societies slide into extraordinary evil. When she said “never forget,” she did not mean “unless it becomes uncomfortable.”

The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers and death camps. It began with words. With lies. With the spread of conspiracy theories. With the slow normalisation of hatred. With the othering of Jewish people. With people deciding that certain lives mattered less than others. And, crucially, with silence, with decent people looking away because it felt easier than speaking up.

This is precisely why Holocaust education matters. It teaches young people where prejudice leads when left unchallenged, how democracies corrode from within, and what happens when lies become louder than truth. My great-grandmother always believed that education was the solution, that knowledge could be a shield against hatred.

But what happens when education itself becomes the problem?

What we are seeing now is that the sharp rise in antisemitism is not happening despite decades of Holocaust education, but in part because so much of it was never truly believed in to begin with. For too many academic institutions and teachers, Holocaust remembrance and education about anti-Jewish racism became a tick-box exercise, something done because it had to be done, not because it was understood, valued or defended. It was procedural, not principled. Now, when that education becomes inconvenient, when it carries social cost, when it risks controversy, when those teachers have an excuse and a reason not to teach it, it is quietly dropped. And that tells us everything.

At a time when antisemitism is at its highest level in decades, and becoming increasingly violent, we should be strengthening Holocaust education, not retreating from it.

Too many teachers are being forced into silence by pressure from their communities and from colleagues. They are being told they must “balance” Holocaust remembrance with unrelated political narratives, as though the murder of six million Jews requires qualification, as though Jewish suffering must now come with footnotes.

Soon, there will be no survivors left. No living witnesses. Only last week, we lost Harry Olmer, a Holocaust survivor who endured multiple Nazi forced-labour and concentration camps. He was a personal hero of mine. I travelled to Poland with him in 2023 and heard his story first-hand. Soon, there will be no one left who can say, simply, “I was there.”

When that moment comes, all that will remain is what we chose to teach.

If we allow Holocaust education to wither now, at precisely the moment antisemitism is rising, distortion is spreading, and Jewish students increasingly report feeling unsafe, then we are not just failing the past. We are betraying the future. Because history does not repeat itself. People do.

And when we abandon the responsibility to teach our children the past with truth and integrity, we abandon the future too. If we teach children that history can be set aside when it becomes uncomfortable, we teach them something far more dangerous than any lesson about the past, we teach them that moral clarity is negotiable.

That is a lesson no school should ever impart.

[Alex Edelman @AlexEdelman]

I think of this photo a lot. The owner, Rachel Posner, donated it to Yad Vashem, and on the back wrote in German: “Chanukah 5692 (1932). ‘Death to Judah,’ so the flag says. ‘Judah will live forever,’ so the light answers.” Some lights cannot be extinguished. Chag Sameach.

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@petepaphides 💯

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@MichaelAHann Hard to disagree - and thanks for the promp to re-read that brilliant article by @missbarton https://t.co/hTQp3bzWA3

[Fania Oz-Salzberger 🇮🇱🕊️🟣 פניה עוז-זלצברגר @faniaoz]

I cannot single-handedly fight the “pro-Palestinian” poison machine any more than I can fight my own government’s.
But here’s the truth for the record: my father, Amos Oz, was 9 years old during the Dir Yassin massacre, and a peace activist all his adult life.
He never killed anyone, and his mandatory military service of 2 years was as a non-combatant.
As to Amos Kenan - the two were members of the Israeli Left but certainly not friends - he was indeed present in the Dir Yassin massacre as a very young man, and the trauma turned him into a lifelong peace activist.
Oz rooted for the two-states solution, while Kenan came to prefer one Arab/Jewish state.
If only more Palestinian and Israeli activists were like the two Amoses, history would have taken a better course.
Please share this.

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@AdamWagner1 What a mensch - thinking of Steve and his extended family at this emotional time 🎗️

[Norman Records @normanrecords]

Probably my favourite Can album…

[Samer Sinijlawiسامر السنجلاوي @SSinijlawi]

Both Palestinians and Israelis believe they are engaged in a just struggle. Both are confident that they will prevail. Both view the other side as the problem, failing to recognize that we are, in fact, each other’s solution.

Israelis desire peace, but their primary concern is security. Palestinians also want peace but insist on human dignity, rights, and justice. The horrors of October 7 and the ongoing war on Gaza do not alter the fundamental reality: Israelis and Palestinians will continue to share this land.

As someone who knows both Palestinians and Israelis well, I believe we can find a way out of our current impasse – if we stop dwelling on our dark past and instead begin to look toward the future. To achieve peace, Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and Bibi Netanyahu's far-right government must all go. This change is inevitable and will happen soon.

Palestinians need a unified, representative, accountable, and younger leadership that emerges through free elections. This leadership must address the corruption in the West Bank and the destruction in Gaza. It must protect Palestinians’ political freedoms, safeguard their rights, and promote social and economic development. Most importantly, it must find a way to join hands with Israel.

Leaders on both sides must collaborate to ensure security for Israelis and fulfill the national aspirations of Palestinians. We have a small window to end this madness and move toward peace. The time to act is now.

#ProPeace #NewLeadership #BuildingBridges #Coexistence #FreePalestine #Gaza

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@MarkGardener ... but this is the account to follow: https://t.co/pGApQWjYMR

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@MarkGardener Don't ask me where it comes from... https://t.co/GcLwfmVFgj

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@Hartman_Inst @YKleinHalevi Very insightful and powerful episode 🙏

[Michele Stodart @MicheleStodart]

Pls RX: I’ll be announcing some exciting news tomorrow! ✨

Those of you who are already on my mailing list will get an early Special Invitation Today! So Sign Up Now https://t.co/uedS55H3UJ

I’m so excited and feeling very grateful to be here sharing this news with you! 🙏💕🌻

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@MicheleStodart @GreenNote @themagicnumbers @TheAMAUK @americanaUK @RocknReelR2 @klofmag @ownnashville @voice_ofawoman @Fatea_Magazine @AMERICANAFEST I may have jumped the gun ;-)
Can't wait!

[Poppy Wood @poppyeh]

The coroner concluded that Emma and 7y/o daughter Lettie were unlawfully killed by her husband before he killed himself

Her sister Deborah Kirk gave an extraordinarily powerful statement outside court urging people to remember what’s at the heart of this case: domestic abuse

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@BRyderJones There's something not quite right about the list

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

On this day... the best party of all time ever @GreenNote - still pinching myself 😊

[David Boyd @davidboyd01]

@sarahsackman @ShabanaMahmood Purim costume sorted!

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

A rock band is performing and the singer sees a kid with a banner asking to play guitar with them. The singer asks him:

- Do you really know how to play guitar?
- Yeah!
- What's your favorite band?
- Guns N' Roses

What happens next is incredible.

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

This week, a monument honoring non-Jews who rescued Jews from the Nazis was defaced with the message, "Escalate for Palestine, everyone."

If you want to know if you would have helped Jews during the Holocaust, just look at how you’re treating us now.

If you haven't spoken against antisemitism, or supported your Jewish friends and neighbors since October 7, but you partake in the protests escalating violence against us… you have your answer.