Israeli Youth Pilgrimages to Poland: Rationale and Polemics

whom are third-generation Israelis, have participated in school delegations that traveled to Poland to visit Holocaust sites. These school journeys visit Jewish sites and death camps, as part of a broad-scale project that was initiated in 1988. Over the years, the number of participants has grown steadily and by the end of 2008, 300,000 youngsters visited Poland under the aegis of this project (Vergun, 2008). The journeys are sponsored by the Ministry of Education, and are part of the Holocaust curriculum, which includes extensive and detailed preparatory study before the youngsters leave for Poland. The Holocaust curriculum in Israel is no longer a unique school program. According to a survey by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism of Tel Aviv University, the number of countries that commemorate a Holocaust Day has grown from 20 in the 1990s to 60 countries today. This trend has also been accompanied with the establishment of museums dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust, memorial ceremonies in a growing circle of countries, as well as extended media coverage and growing cultural and artistic awareness of the Holocaust. Following a conference organized by PM of Sweden in 2000, an international task force on the study, memory, and research of the Holocaust was established, with participants from 27 countries. Members in the task force assumed the mission of introducing a curriculum on the Holocaust into the educational systems of their respective countries (Hasson, 2010). The Israeli Ministry of Education (henceforth MOE) defines the educational and social goals of the journeys and the nature of the tours, trains teachers and counselors of the delegations, and prepares the participants for the journey. Two years ago, the MOE decided to examine the extent to which these goals were achieved by the youth delegations to Poland. To this end, an interdisciplinary research team was established. In an empirical study, the team analyzed thousands of questionnaires, interviewed students, teachers, counselors, and other individuals involved in the journeys, and an attempt was made to summarize the arguments that emerged in Israel in support of and in opposition to these journeys. The following paper is based on data collected in this study.