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Many members of the Jewish community used Holocaust Remembrance Day this Sunday to reflect upon the genocide that occurred during the late 1930s and early 1940s. But while they examine their social responsibility in eradicating discrimination and hate, some also feel the term Holocaust has been contemporarily abused and misused.

The word Holocaust was attributed in the 1950s to signify the Nazi killing of millions of people due to their ethnic, religious, and national origins – particularly Jews.

But current use of the word has separated it from its original association in a way that many feel demeans the significance behind its historicity.

“Historically, the term Holocaust has been associated with the mass murder of European Jewry, therefore, I think we should maintain some respect for the integrity of that term,” said David Myers, a UCLA professor who specializes in Jewish history.

“There is a real danger in diluting the enormity of the attempted Nazi destruction of the world Jewry by applying that term to other historical or social phenomena,” he added.

Myers points to a statement made by officials in the Roman Catholic Church condemning abortion. According to a BBC news report, the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joachim Meissner, compared taking the abortion pill to the use of poison gas in the Holocaust.

Another instance occurred last summer, when the word Holocaust was used to describe the extensive number of deaths that occurred due to a heat wave in Europe.

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of UCLA Hillel, agreed with Myers.

“The memory of the Holocaust has been cheapened by the loose usage of the word,” he said.

Seidler-Feller recalled what he called an obscene example of this when, while he was watching a news clip of a baseball game, the announcer shouted, “There is a holocaust on the field!”

Jewish Student Union President Andrew Green, whose grandmother is a Holocaust survivor, said, “It bothers me that people would consider using these words that are so hateful, and I really feel like it belittles the significance of the meaning of these words.”

Myers said the troublesome application of the term Holocaust to other events “really taps into a question of central concern in remembering the Holocaust. Is it primarily a Jewish event? Or is it an event that should be remembered in general?”

Both Myers and Seidler-Feller said Jewish identity should not be purely based upon victimhood from the Holocaust. Rather, Jews should take the tragic memory and strive to maintain Jewish life and vitality, they said.

“No identity should be tied to negativity. No one should be defined by the people that hate them. What should give people a definition are the principles that inspire them,” Seidler-Feller said.

Myers also said it is important to support centers for Holocaust memory. He said the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has demonstrated how the memory of the Holocaust is integral to history as a whole.

“The success of that institution in attracting visitors and maintaining intellectual integrity is important not just for Jewish culture in America, but American culture as well,” Myers said.

The importance of Holocaust Remembrance Day – which falls on the anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, in which 7,000 Jews were killed in the biggest Jewish resistance to the Nazis – has two purposes for Jews, Seidler-Feller said. It should be used to memorialize the six million Jews that died, while also taking the memory of that tragedy to ensure that it will not occur again.

Green said it is important to realize that Jews were not the only ones who were victimized, and that Holocaust Remembrance Day should resonate with everyone.

“The Holocaust Remembrance Day is not only for Jews. Every person should be remembering what Jews and non-Jews endured, and be motivated to bring an end to hate,” Green said.