In the 1980s, as the generation of Holocaust survivors began to age, the Jewish world found itself pondering some relevant questions: What would happen after the last of the survivors were gone? Who would then bear witness to the greatest crime in history? And how could we ensure that their legacy did not die with them?

The organized Jewish world did its best to come up with answers. But now in 2023, as Jews around the world prepare to observe Yom Hashoah—the day set aside in the Hebrew calendar to remember the victims and heroes of the Holocaust—a different though related question must be addressed.

With most of the men and women who suffered through the Nazi war to exterminate European Jewry having passed away and even those who were child survivors reaching well into their 80s, the Jewish community faces a different dilemma. The preservation of their testimony and the institutions that have been set up to ensure that the Holocaust is not forgotten is no longer in doubt. What remains tentative is whether the massive effort that has gone into Holocaust commemoration has done much to help combat the efforts of the current generation of antisemites who currently present a formidable threat to Jewish life. The work of those who have labored mightily to guarantee that the 6 million slain by the German Nazis and their collaborators aren’t forgotten is of great value. But not only has this effort failed to address contemporary perils to Jewish life, their success may actually be doing as much to hinder Jewish self-defense as helping it.

In the first years after the Holocaust, the work of memorialization was not at the top of the Jewish world’s “To Do” list. Yet by the 1960s, that began to change.

By this time, the natural reluctance on the part of many survivors to speak about their experiences began to be replaced by a determination to preserve the memory of those who were lost and of the crimes committed against them. The cause of Holocaust commemoration became, along with support for Israel, the twin pillars of Jewish communal life.