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| Jews disembark at Auschwitz |
About 40 percent of all Israelis believe the Holocaust could happen again, and 43 percent are reportedly concerned the State of Israel is in danger of being destroyed, according to a poll conducted by Tel-Hai Academic College [in the Galilee].
…. The poll surveyed adults between 18 and 85, as well as 12th-grade high school students who had taken school trips to Holocaust sites in Poland. When respondents were asked to what extent they felt their lives and the lives of their family members were in danger, 55 percent rated the risk as low or non-existent. About 12 percent said they thought they were at great risk, and 31 percent rated the risk as
moderate.The opinion polling of the 12th-grade respondents was completed in stages, and included a questionnaire distributed to students before their trips to Poland, and again after their return to Israel. The results show that the visit to Poland actually improved the students’ sense of Israel’s strength. Before the journey, 43 percent of the 130 students surveyed said they did not believe Israel was in danger of extinction. That figure declined to 37 percent after the trip.
“Exposing young people to the horrors that took place during the Holocaust and then returning to Israel strengthens the sense among young people that they have a strong country that can face the lurking dangers,” ….
When it comes to the public at large, however, … the threats that Israel faces — including threats from Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip — indirectly reinforce a sense of persecution and preserve the collective trauma of the Holocaust.
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