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Haredim hold barbecue on Holocaust Remembrance Day
Despite Holocaust Remembrance Day, 200 haredi youth gather in Jerusalem park for barbecue; 'It's in victims' memory,' one mocks
Some 200 haredi youth held a provocative barbecue in a Jerusalem park Sunday night, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"It's in the memory of the Holocaust's victims," one of them said defiantly.
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While the neighboring Yad Vashem museum held a somber memorial service, the yeshiva students and young haredi women gathered around smoking grills.
"We don't do what you tell us. We remember the Holocaust more than you and any other secular person. We just honor their memory in our own way," argued Yossi, a yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh who arrived at the park especially for the barbecue.
"What do you want from us?" his friend challenged. "You drive around on the Sabbath, you don't fast on the Fast of Gedaliah. Do you even know what that is?"
"My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor," said another. "It's you, the secular people, who don't respect the victims.
"We will read Psalms for them tomorrow morning and study torah in their memory. What do you do? Say a few pretty words and sound a siren?
"Besides," he added, "today's a day off, and we came here to relax."
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