THERE WAS AN on-line advertisement for an “Anne Frank” costume.1
The costume for sale at HalloweenCostumes.com posted to social media shows a smiling girl wearing World War II-era clothing with a beret.
Carlos Galindo-Elvira, who leads the Anti-Defamation League's Arizona office, wrote on Twitter that the costume trivialized Frank's memory.2
I’m not certain how closely the cartoon character in the on-line advertisement resembled the real Anne Frank (see below) or even how accurate the costume.
Since Jewish organizations regularly honor Ms. Frank in plays, lectures, etc., might not the costume be considered another means of making more people aware of Ms. Frank, and by extension, the Holocaust?
I find it astonishing that, given the numbers of famous and near-famous Jewish writers, actors, and other public figures that Jews wait until they feel someone is attacking them — or something they have decided “belongs” to them — before doing any decent PR.
Even Israel — this scrivener holds dual citizenship — is plagued by lousy “hasbarah,” PR. Much of Israel’s international image is bad today not because Israel and Israelis are bad, but because other’s negative PR about Israel dominates. The current prime minister finally, a few years ago, realized the government’s mistake and is making an effort to improve the image of Israel, its citizens, and, to a lesser extant, Jews in general. It is an uphill battle.
There ARE things — images, stories, etc. — to which we should, to which we must, take umbrage, but a costume of a young girl in World War 2-era apparel seems akin to Don Quixote tilting at windmills, but without encouragement from either Sancho Panza or Dulcinea del Toboso.3
Better to work to counter the rhetoric of the so-called “Palestinian Authority” and its brain-washed leftist ideologues in Israel and elsewhere, e.g., U.S. and other college campuses.
Jews do not “own” the Holocaust. The nazis targeted Jews, but they also targeted — and exterminated — many others: political foes, mentally and physically handicapped, and Roma, to name a few others who, unfortunately, most Jewish organizations fail to acknowledge. That’s a mistake; that’s bad PR.
Was the costume — for a singularly non-Jewish holiday, the Eve of All Saints, halloween — really that offensive. Was it demeaning to Ms. Frank or even Jews of her generation? Perhaps every non-observant Jewish girl should wear the costume as she goes trick-or-treating, or — better, perhaps some observant Jewish girls could wear the costume to a Purim magelah reading. We survived Haman; we survived Hitler, and we will survive the extremists on the left and on the right.
Maybe the Anne Frank costume should be sold through synagogues and stores catering to the aware Jew.
Perhaps Jews should rethink concerns about the costume and its advertisement.
Sources
1. Anne Frank outfit: http://tinyurl.com/ydg5nozc
2. Carlos Galindo-Elvira: http://tinyurl.com/y7r5xhj4
3. Don Quixote: http://tinyurl.com/y8zprut6
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
