[Avodah] Kiddush Ha'Shem

[Yitzhak Grossman]

Someone asked me off-list if I'd say that most victims of the Holocaust
did not die Al Kiddush Ha'Shem.

>From R. Dr. Aaron Rothkoff-Rakeffet "The 'Kedoshim' Status of the
Holocaust Victims", Gesher 5745 Volume 9:

"The victims of the Holocaust are generally credited with having
attained the status of Kedoshim since their deaths were a
Sanctification of G-d's Name (Kiddush Hashem).  This term, however,
should not be utilized indiscriminately.  It usually indicates that a
Jew has chosen to sacrifice his life rather than transgress a
commandment. ..."

His conclusion, which I don't find persuasive:

"In accordance with those viewpoints, the designation of kedoshim is
appropriate for all the Jewish Holocaust victims."

>From a previous Areivim email of mine:

> I have wondered for many years whether there is *any* classic source
> for the notion that one who is killed for being a Jew, as opposed to
> one who *voluntarily* gives up his life for God, His Torah, His Mizvos,
> or His people, can be said to have died Al Kiddush Hashem.
> 
> My friend Yisroel shows me that R. Moshe Bleich raises this
> question in an article in Or HaMizrach ("The Hebrew Torah Journal of
> the Religious Zionists of America"): it is a commonplace to
> automatically call all Jewish victims of the Holocaust "Kedoshim", but
> what is the source for this [0]? R. Shepansky, the editor, is firmly
> convinced that the appellation is correct, and he attempts in an
> editor's note to provide some sources for this, but I did not find his
> arguments convincing. Neither, apparently, did R. Moshe Bleich, since
> he reiterates his dissatisfaction with the convention in a subsequent
> issue of the journal, in a note to which R. Shepansky, too, reminds the
> reader of his position [1].
> 
> And so I throw down the gauntlet; I challenge anyone to provide a
> classic, or at the very least pre-twentieth century, source for the
> doctrine that being murdered for being a Jew is a sufficient condition
> for being considered to have died Al Kiddush HaShem.
> 
> [0] 130-131 Nissan-Tammuz 5748 p. 302
> [1] 138-139 Nissan-Tammuz 5750 p. 232

I have since encountered some more sources on the topic, which I may
cite in a subsequent email.

Yitzhak
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