It’s Yom HaShoah today—the Israeli Shoah rememberance day. If you don’t know, Shoah is the proper Hebrew term for the holocaust, and it’s use is important. /1

Holocaust didn’t use to be a proper noun. A holocaust is defined as: a sacrifice consumed in fire or a massive destructive loss of life. (ie “nuclear holocaust”). It’s worth noting that “a sacrifice” is the FIRST definition listed by Merriam-Webster.
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That sacrificial definition stems from old JEWISH sacrificial customs. Needless to say, that makes it deeply disturbing to apply this word to what was don to Jews by Nazi Germany /3

Haaretz explains it like this:
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On the use of the word “Shoah” Haaretz says the following:
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Not sacrifice. Not cleansing. Disaster, destruction, calamity, sorrow. Loss. This is how Jews know and remember The Shoah. I know that “the holocaust” has become universally used, even by many Jews, but I implore you not to write this off.
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Rungurado (in North Korea) is the worlds largest stadium, seating 150,000 people. In the holocaust, we lost 40 full Rungurados of Jewish men, women, and children. That’s also a 100% full Yankee Stadium almost 110 times.
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That is over 60% of the estimated Jewish population of ALL OF EUROPE. Thats right: two in every three European Jews died. And yes, I typed “Holocaust” in that last tweet. It’s a hard habit to break. That’s why I’m writing this thread—to remind myself, too.
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