Depicting the Holocaust for American Orthodox Jewish Children in Olomeinu

Olomeinu was a children’s magazine published by Torah Umesorah, an Orthodox American Jewish educational organization, from 1945 to 2011. Founded when the American Orthodox community was in its infancy, Olomeinu tracks the renaissance of Orthodox Judaism in America and reflects the movement’s search for an interpretation of the past reflecting its values. Of particular importance to the intellectual development of American Orthodox historiography was the movement’s relationship with the Holocaust. From the magazine’s founding in the immediate aftermath of World War II until the publication was discontinued, depiction of the Holocaust for the child readers of Olomeinu evolved from the magazine’s historical backdrop to its ideological foreground. Over time, consecration of prewar European Jewry increasingly justified the religious and educational purposes of American Orthodox pedagogy. Highlighting representation of the Holocaust in Olomeinu throughout the publication’s history demonstrates how the Holocaust moved from the periphery of Orthodox American Jewish pedagogy to its center.