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Holocaust Lessons and Reflections
By REUVEN HAMMER
Today, January 27, is International Holocaust Commemoration Day. It was chosen because on this day Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945. Although Israel has Yom HaShoah V'hagvurah, it is nevertheless appropriate that we join the other nations of the world in recalling the Shoah today.
Remembering the liberation of that most notorious of concentration camps is particularly meaningful to me this year, since just a few months ago I was there as part of a journey to Poland organized by the Ramah Adult Institute. It was an experience I will not forget. The trip took us to Warsaw, Lublin and Krakow and many small towns along the way, as well as to Treblinka and Majdanek.
I must admit that I had always been reluctant to go to Poland. Why would anyone want to visit places in which such terrible atrocities had been perpetrated? Yet I had come to the conclusion that it was important for me to see the Nazi camps in Poland. I had always felt a certain guilt over the fact that I lived through the years of the Shoah as a child and a teenager in peace and happiness when my fellow Jews of the same age were being tortured and slaughtered. Had my grandparents not immigrated to the United States, my family and I would have been there as well. During my lifetime I have had and still have very close friends who were Shoah survivors, including some who had been in Auschwitz, and I felt it only right to go to the place they had been. Obviously my experience would not in any way whatsoever recreate what they went through, but just being there would somehow be a tribute to them and to all those who suffered that martyrdom.
Thanks to both an excellent guide and a sensitive group of fellow participants, the experience was what I had expected and more. In many ways, however, it was strange, paradoxical and almost surreal. One goes to visit mass graves and concentration camps in the comfort of an air conditioned bus, stopping to picnic along the way, sleeping in luxurious hotels. It is almost obscene.
The day we went to "tour" Auschwitz, we arose very early and traveled in the dark through dense fog, and, remembering the film Night and Fog, I had the strangest feeling. "I am on the way to Auschwitz!" We stopped first in the town of Oswiecim and recited Shacharit in the restored synagogue-museum there. At the same time it was both the most meaningful shacharit prayer I have ever experienced and the only time when I felt I could not pray at all.
There is not enough space here to describe all that I experienced and learned on this trip, but let me list a few important things.
One thing I had not anticipated was a deeper understanding of the scope and importance of Jewish life in Poland before the war. Mainly through the tour of the magnificent Polin Museum in Warsaw, I began to realize that Polish Jewry had been one of the largest and the most important Jewish communities in the world for hundreds of years, so that its destruction was a tragedy with an enormous impact on Jewish history. I think we are inclined to emphasize the Jewries of Western Europe that were more "enlightened," but in size and variety of Jewish life, they pale next to Poland.
Secondly, because of several Poles we met who are devoted to preserving the memory of Polish Jewry and the tragedy of its destruction, I have a more nuanced picture of Poland. Our guide at the museum revealed at the end of the tour that his grandmother was Jewish, although he himself did not consider himself a Jew in any way. When I asked him what the attitude of Poles had been to the Shoah during those years, he answered that there were some who endangered themselves to save Jews and some who actively joined in the persecution and killing of Jews. And the majority? I asked. "They were indifferent," he replied.
Thirdly, seeing mass graves, including those of 800 children near Tarnow, visiting town after town where huge numbers of Jews were marched out and brutally shot, viewing synagogue after synagogue now either in ruins or preserved as a museum because there are no longer Jews there, standing in silence next to the enormous mound of human ashes preserved in a monument in Majdanek and going through the camps and being overwhelmed by the way in which suffering and death was an industry fine-tuned by the Germans and collaborated in by others, I was again confronted by the question, "How could human beings do this to other human beings?" It is simply incomprehensible.
And finally I realized that there are two important lessons to be learned from the Shoah - first that we must never let this happen to us again, but secondly that Judaism must never teach anything that even faintly resembles the doctrine of racial superiority or inferiority in which any human beings are degraded to the status of less than human. Any such belief within Judaism will inevitably lead to acts of violence and even the taking of life by extremists who believe that they are acting in the name of God. As a people that has experienced the Shoah, we must reject such beliefs and reaffirm the sacredness of all human life.
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While this is an elegant essay, I am wondering: Is David Harris also talking/warning about Donald Trump, or am I imagining it?
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day
By David Harris, AJC Chief Executive Officer
The UN designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This was the day, in 1945, when the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi German death camp that has come to symbolize the demonic depths to which the Third Reich descended in the "industrialization" of genocide.
In the Jewish tradition, we are commanded to remember (zachor) and not to forget (lo tishkach).
Let us remember...
...the six million Jews, including 1.5 million children, who were exterminated in the Holocaust (in Hebrew, Shoah).
...the entirely new alphabet created by the Nazis for the Final Solution - from the letter "A" for Auschwitz to the letter "Z" for Zyklon-B.
...not only the tragic deaths of the six million Jews, but also their vibrant lives-as shopkeepers and craftsmen, scientists and authors, teachers and students, parents and children, husbands and wives.
...the richly hued and ancient Jewish civilizations that were destroyed-from Salonika to Vilna, from Amsterdam to Prague.
...the slippery slope that began with the rantings of an obscure Austrian-born anti-Semite named Adolf Hitler and led, in the course of less than 15 years, to his absolute control over Germany.
...those who failed to grasp the emerging threat of the Hitler regime, who minimized his maniacal ravings in the 1930s, and who thought a policy of appeasement might satisfy his unquenchable lust for power and conquest.
...the fertile soil of European anti-Semitism-cultivated over centuries by cultural, political, and religious voices-that created an all-too-receptive climate for the Nazi objective of eliminating the Jewish people.
...the courage of Denmark, as well as Albania, Bulgaria, and Finland, for their extraordinary efforts to protect their own Jewish communities.
...the example of thousands of Righteous Persons-who are called, in Hebrew, Hasidei Umot Ha'olam. They risked their own lives-and, in some cases, gave their lives-so that others might live.
...the millions of non-Jews-Poles and Russians, Roma and the disabled, political opponents and homosexuals-murdered under the relentless Nazi onslaught.
...the determination and sacrifice of the Allied nations, which, through "blood, toil, tears and sweat," as the indomitable Winston Churchill said, vanquished the Third Reich.
...the survivors of the death camps, who endured such unimaginable suffering and who have inspired us all with their indomitable courage, spirit, and will to live.
...the absence of an Israel in those war-time years-an Israel that, had it existed, would have provided a haven when so shamefully few countries were willing to accept Jewish refugees.
We must never forget...
...those who perished at the hands of the Third Reich and its collaborators.
...those who saved even a single life. As it is written in the Talmud: "He who saves one life has saved the world."
...the ancient Jewish teaching that we are all created "in the image of God."
...the importance of speaking out, forcefully and unambiguously, and taking action against intolerance and bigotry, whenever and wherever they occur.
...the inextricable link among democracy, the rule of law, and protection of human rights.
...the age-old prophetic vision of a world of justice, harmony, and peace.
...that each of us, in ways large and small, can help bring us closer to the realization of that prophetic vision.
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Yom Hashoah Continued
Perhaps this is why it is important to visit more than one concentration camp...Bergen Belsen is practically deserted; few visit, and its peacefulness and open fields are at once eerie, haunting and, yes, beautiful...
If you take a selfie at a Holocaust memorial, you might be shamed on 'Yolocaust'
Israeli-German satirist sought to highlight the trend of taking selfies at Berlin's Holocaust memorial. Click
here and
here to read more.
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PA
I know that many of you were upset to read about a last-minute authorization of $221 million to the PA; you will be happy to know that...
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Trump and Israel
I asked myself again and again as I read these articles, and op-eds, "And what happens when Trump's 4 years or 8 years come to an end? What then for Israel at the UN and in the international arena withpout his 'protection'?" (unless Jared Kushner can actually pull off an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians).
I would love to hear your thoughts!
Jerusalem and the Settlement Expansions
I was impressed that he calls the settlements illegitimate, not illegal, or in contravention of international law:
Versus Unilateral Withdrawal
(all of a sudden unilateral withdrawal has come up-perhaps as a "straw man" to be rejected)
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Israel Technology
The Army is Israel's melting pot...and while seek to avoid military service, serving is for most a badge of national honor and pride. Allowing those with developmental, physical and medical issues to serves, gives them a sense of belonging and contributing that is priceless:
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Traditional. Egalitarian. Modern...Masorti
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Join Masorti's Mission to HELP in Israel
F
ebruary 19th, 2017 - February 27th, 2017
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H
ear from rabbis and congregants who sustain our kehillot
E
xplore Masorti programs; see how they make a difference
L
earn about the challenges to religious pluralism
P
ray with Women of the Wall on Rosh Hodesh Adar
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Exciting and urgent news! The Masorti Foundation is organizing a mission to Israel in support of our Masorti Movement rabbis, lay leaders and congregants.
We will stand with our Masorti brothers and sisters in Israel to protect our core values: religious freedom, pluralism and the right to observe Masorti traditions honored all around the world. These values are being challenged today by those who will not tolerate--and will seek to discriminate against--all forms of observance other than orthodox.
The purpose of the mission is recruit and develop champions to be ambassadors for Masorti in their communities so together, we can make change and help create the Israel we want for our children, our grandchildren and ourselves. We know this is short notice and you will need to decide quickly if you want to go or if you want to recruit someone from your community, but we believe that the time is now for us to go.
Please join us. Stand with us!
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Protect Masorti Rights
Masorti stands for tradition. It also stands for inclusion, religious freedom and modernity. Our rights in Israel are being challenged. Raise your voice in Israel. For Israel. Stand
with
Israel...in
Israel.
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Meet Knesset Members
On our mission, you will meet with Knesset members, with Executive Director, YIzhar Hess, with the director of Jewish Pluralislm Watch, with mayors, rabbis and lay leaders. Get behind the scenes. Deepen your understanding. And help Masorti take action to assert our rights.
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Visit Kehillah Moriah
This oldest Masorti/Conservative kehillah in Israel was badly damaged by the fires in November. But with your help, the kehilla is rebuilding and restoring. Meet with congregants and the rabbi and learn first hand how important it is to stand with Masorti.
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Ganze Megillah: Avner Moriah
In celebration of Purim, The Laurie M. Tisch Gallery is pleased to exhibit the stunning, large-scale illuminated Scroll of Esther created by the well-known Israeli painter Avner Moriah. This Scroll of Esther tells the ancient story by mixing Persian, Indian, and Islamic art miniature style paintings with Italian Renaissance styling and contemporary humor, politics and sensibilities.
Ganze Megillah (Yiddish for "The Whole Story") will feature 18 framed illuminated manuscript on parchment, along with process drawings and video of the artists.
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Creative Action Network
Creative Action Network and the Anti-Defamation League are teaming up to invite artists to illustrate refugee stories from across time and geography. Maybe your family fled pogroms in Eastern Europe, from Nazism, from political oppression in Iran or the Soviet Union. Maybe you know someone who fled Uganda or other countries that persecute members of the LGBT community, maybe you are concerned about how many today have to flee extreme violence and persecution. No matter where refugees came from or their reason for fleeing, each story is unique--but connected. We hope to build a collection of pieces that rise above the noise and hateful rhetoric by humanizing the refugee experience.
Crowdsourced, creative campaigns that enlist artist and designers to create work around different ideas and causes. All designs that meet the requirements in their respective creative briefs will be published and made available for sale as prints and other merchandise. Artists retain ownership of their work but grant us permission to promote, license and sell it in exchange for 40% of the proceeds.
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TORAH Page 351, 930 HAFTARAH Page 1220
VA-ERA
God reiterates to Moses that the binding promise He made to the Patriarchs, to bring their descendants from servitude to freedom, and ultimately to dominion in Canaan, would be fulfilled. But an unrelenting, unmoved Pharaoh, who imposes increased hardships on the Israelites, makes them grow more despondent. Pharaoh is unimpressed by Aaron's staff being transformed into a serpent - because the Egyptian magicians can do the same thing - even when it swallows the Egyptian magicians' rods.
So God begins to inflict plague after plague upon Egypt, with no lasting effect upon Pharaoh. Occasionally Pharaoh concedes, but once a plague abates, Pharaoh reverts to his hard-hearted posture. This pattern repeats itself through the seven plagues enumerated in our sidra:
blood, frogs, lice, swarming insects, cattle plague, boils and hail.
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