Yesterday was Yom HaShoah, the day on which the Jewish community around the world observes a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust.
Over 70 years ago, the unthinkable was made possible because the citizens of so many European countries fell silent and turned their faces from what was happening. The world took too long to act.
And yet today, the Jewish people still exist.
Some survived through miracles and others through a stubborn refusal to abandon life. With nothing to sustain them but hope, this group of incredible individuals ensured not just their own survival, but the survival of the Jewish people. They returned from the edge of the abyss, cradling what was left of our way of life and scarred by the separation from everything, and everyone, that they had lost.
So now a burden of responsibility falls to us. It is up to this generation and the next, and then all those that follow, to carry the memory of the victims and the evils that befell them. The number of living witnesses continues to lessen each year and so those memories have been entrusted to us, the next generation, as a sacred responsibility.
Indeed, it is the responsibility of every human being, each in his or her generation, Jew and non-Jew alike, to take that memory and re-affirm the pledge that was forged from the flames of the Holocaust: that we will never forget and we will never again stand by, blinded and in silence.
Yesterday, as Jews, we remembered. We remembered the victims and what happened to our past. We remembered our families. But today is different: today it is our obligation to move from remembering our past to honouring it. In my (humble) opinion, this is where the real significance of any holocaust memorial lies. Like the story of Passover, this chapter today becomes a story of hope, a story of tomorrow.
To remember is to personalise and to make it real. It is to pause and reflect, to be alone with ones thoughts and to acknowledge the pain, the suffering and the sacrifice. However, to honour the many victims – Jews and non-Jews alike – is to live a life of purpose and of meaning. In whatever way we each understand that, and however we interpret the lessons of this dark and bloody time, it is up to each of us to make sure that we take each day as an opportunity to do great things. Each day is a chance to make a difference.
To honour their memory is to spend every day, not in the shadow of the past, but using the past to shape a better, more just future. By living our lives according to the principles of humanity, we move humanity forward to such a place where the unthinkable is truly unthinkable. To stand up to injustice, to stand up for the bullied and to offer the hand of friendship to those that are in need is to restore our faith in humanity and to learn the lessons of this dark and troublesome past.
May the memory of all those that perished, and all those that survived be blessed and may we all come to be a blessing to their memory.
Over 70 years ago, the unthinkable was made possible because the citizens of so many European countries fell silent and turned their faces from what was happening. The world took too long to act.
And yet today, the Jewish people still exist.
Some survived through miracles and others through a stubborn refusal to abandon life. With nothing to sustain them but hope, this group of incredible individuals ensured not just their own survival, but the survival of the Jewish people. They returned from the edge of the abyss, cradling what was left of our way of life and scarred by the separation from everything, and everyone, that they had lost.
So now a burden of responsibility falls to us. It is up to this generation and the next, and then all those that follow, to carry the memory of the victims and the evils that befell them. The number of living witnesses continues to lessen each year and so those memories have been entrusted to us, the next generation, as a sacred responsibility.
Indeed, it is the responsibility of every human being, each in his or her generation, Jew and non-Jew alike, to take that memory and re-affirm the pledge that was forged from the flames of the Holocaust: that we will never forget and we will never again stand by, blinded and in silence.
Yesterday, as Jews, we remembered. We remembered the victims and what happened to our past. We remembered our families. But today is different: today it is our obligation to move from remembering our past to honouring it. In my (humble) opinion, this is where the real significance of any holocaust memorial lies. Like the story of Passover, this chapter today becomes a story of hope, a story of tomorrow.
To remember is to personalise and to make it real. It is to pause and reflect, to be alone with ones thoughts and to acknowledge the pain, the suffering and the sacrifice. However, to honour the many victims – Jews and non-Jews alike – is to live a life of purpose and of meaning. In whatever way we each understand that, and however we interpret the lessons of this dark and bloody time, it is up to each of us to make sure that we take each day as an opportunity to do great things. Each day is a chance to make a difference.
To honour their memory is to spend every day, not in the shadow of the past, but using the past to shape a better, more just future. By living our lives according to the principles of humanity, we move humanity forward to such a place where the unthinkable is truly unthinkable. To stand up to injustice, to stand up for the bullied and to offer the hand of friendship to those that are in need is to restore our faith in humanity and to learn the lessons of this dark and troublesome past.
May the memory of all those that perished, and all those that survived be blessed and may we all come to be a blessing to their memory.
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