Christian overtones in Mike Pence's Holocaust remembrance day tweet stir Jewish outrage
Vice President Mike Pence's tweet commemorating the International Holocaust Remembrance Day sparked outrage among some Jews who complained about the supposed Christian overtones in the message.
On Saturday, Pence posted a tweet that included a short video clip, in which the vice president and his wife, Karen, are seen laying a memorial wreath in Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance.
"A few days ago, Karen & I paid our respects at Yad Vashem to honor the six million Jewish martyrs of the Holocaust who 3 years after walking beneath the shadow of death, rose up from the ashes to resurrect themselves to reclaim a Jewish future," the tweet read.
Some online commentators have complained about Pence's use of the terms "martyr" and "resurrect," claiming that the vice president is using "Christ imagery" and a "Jesus analogy."
"'Resurrect themselves?' Pence dishonors the memories of the 6 million by co-opting them for the political agenda of his evangelical base," Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe said in a tweet, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"It's from *Pence's* religious perspective that my murdered family members might be resurrected. But they—and I—forcefully reject that cosmology. We don't believe what he believes. Believe what you want, man, but I'd appreciate it if you could leave 6 million dead Jews out of it," read another tweet from a user with the name Ari Kohen, First of His Name.
However, an article from Haaretz pointed out that many of the phrases used by the vice president also have Jewish connotations, and are often used by Israeli politicians when discussing the Holocaust.
According to the article, resurrection is translated from the Hebrew word "tekuma," which also means rebirth or revival. The word is also often used to describe the establishment of the state of Israel after the Holocaust.
The article further explained that the word martyr, in Hebrow kedoshim, is often used in Israel to refer to Holocaust victims, noting that the official name for Israel's Holocaust memorial day is Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day.
In the video accompanying the tweet, Pence was quoted as saying the living Jewish people, not those who were killed during the Holocaust, were the ones who went on to rebuild the Jewish state.
When Pence and his wife visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem last week, they walked among the displays with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife as the guides described the site commemorating six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
The vice president also visited and prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on his final day in the Middle East.