Silent Holocaust

Referring to assimilation of Jews

Concerned Jewish people sometimes refer to assimilation (along with abortion within the Jewish community) as a type of Holocaust. This is because assimilation is the leading cause for the shrinkage of almost all Jewish populations in Western countries since World War II. This shrinkage has been called the Silent Holocaust [1] (in comparison to the genocide against Jews during World War II) by communal leaders such as Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald of the National Jewish Outreach Program, perhaps the best-known popularizer of the phrase. The Jewish community will not be recognizable in 25 to 30 years. 50% of American Jews marry a non-Jew. Better education is associated with lower levels of intermarriage because Jews with a higher education level encounter a marriage market with more Jews.

Use in pro-life circles

To pro-life activists, the "silent holocaust" refers to the estimated 60,000,000 fetuses that have been aborted in the United States since 1973. One activist group, known as the "Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust," feels that everyone has been directly affected by this holocaust because all people have been denied the company of aborted individuals. This group believes it is their job to "defend the right to life of future generations and end America's genocide."

In 2014, a pro-life politician, Senator Mike Fair, brought this terminology into the political domain, during a debate in the South Carolina State Senate. The debate was over a proposed bill which would ban abortions past 20 weeks. Fair said, "This Holocaust of our making in our country is 60 million and counting," referring to the estimated number abortions performed since Roe vs Wade legalized abortion in the US. Fair also said Hitler believed "because you're a Jew you had no right to live. In essence, some people are more qualified to live than others. And that's what we're saying here", referring to abortion. This sparked an outcry from Senator Joel Lourie, who is Jewish. Lourie said, "We can debate science and medicine and personhood all day long. But when 6 million people, men, women and children, are dragged into gas chambers, I don’t think that's an appropriate comparison." Fair responded with, "Six million, it shouldn’t have been one, for crying out loud. Six million is incredibly horrible, what they endured. But those 60 million taken out of the womb will never have a chance to be dragged into anything. They’re gone." Fair has also compared Planned Parenthood to Hitler.

In 2013, Jim Bob Duggar, former state legislator and star of the reality television series 19 Kids and Counting, compared abortion to the Holocaust at the Values Voters Summit. The comparison sparked criticism, to which Duggar responded, "Let me clarify, We have since 1973 had 55 million abortions, so what we have going on is a baby holocaust." Opposition to this statement prompted a MoveOn.org petition to cancel Duggar's reality television series.