RJ Blog

On Yom Hashoah we remember the great tragedy that we as a people and as a world faced during World War II over 60 years ago. But how do we use that memory today? To what end does that experience motivate our community? Surely one answer is that we as a people must be particularly attuned to atrocities committed around the world. Yesterday the United Nations observed a Day of Remembrance for victims of the Rwandan genocide. This week marks the 19th anniversary of the beginning of a 100 day period during which hundreds of thousands of Rwandan men, women [...]

Today is Yom Hashoah, the remembrance day for the Holocaust. This day is a very emotional and heart wrenching time for Israelis, as many have family members who were in the Holocaust or are survivors.

by Linda K. Wertheimer “You Jewish son of a b….,” a boy taunted my brother on the school bus one day as I sat nearby. I was 14, my brother, Kevin, 16. The comment made us seethe, but we let it pass. Then a few weeks later, my family, the only Jewish one in our neighborhood and rural Ohio school, woke up to find swastikas etched in wax on our home windows and cars. This time, my family did not let it pass. My parents contacted a deputy sheriff, who was friends with my brother through Boy Scouts. The deputy [...]

Today is Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we pay tribute to all those who died in the Holocaust. Shoah, which means “catastrophe” or “utter destruction” in Hebrew, refers to the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during World War II. We’ve posted a number of moving and meaningful blog posts on RJ.org about this day, and we hope you’ll take the time to read them. We’ve also rounded up some of the interesting Yom HaShoah-related pieces that have been making their way around the Internet today. have we missed anything that you found to be particularly [...]

A couple of years ago, at the ripe old age of 96, Simon Wiesenthal died in his sleep. Wiesenthal survived nine different concentration and labor camps and faced certain death on two occasions, but somehow, he outlived his Nazi tormentors. Following the war, Wiesenthal appointed himself advocate of the tortured, the starved, the degraded and the slain. It is estimated that the Holocaust was perpetrated by at least 600,000 Germans and very willing collaborators from other nations – but to date, only 7,000 executioners have been tried. To measure Wiesenthal’s achievement, we need only recall that of the 7,000 prosecuted, [...]

To this day, I still cannot comprehend how one person and some of his fellow countrymen could have carried out acts that decimated not only the Jewish communities of Europe, but also targeted any group of people they deemed unworthy. The countless men, women and children who were systematically murdered for their religious beliefs, cultural practices, mental capacity, physical ability or sexual orientation are remembered today on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

by Erika Dreifus In 2006, Günter Grass’s confession that he’d been a member of the Waffen SS surprised me. But it didn’t depress me. It didn’t anger me. Grass seemed appropriately ashamed and regretful. I knew him to be an advocate for Germany’s recognition of its Nazi past. He wasn’t asking for my forgiveness, but he would have had it, anyway. I’d read the closing words of his 2002 novel, Crabwalk, as a regretful but accepting acknowledgment of the lasting reverberations of this past, for all of us. Those lines—“It doesn’t end. Never does it end.”—moved me so deeply that [...]

by Leah Wolff-Pellingra This is the story of one life. Her name was Mina Speier-Holstein. She was one of 15 children born in Cologne. She taught Home Economics and Physical Education. She had one son. On Kristallnacht, they found each other – Mina, her husband, Baruch, and her son, Jonas. They roamed the parks all night, afraid to go home. Jonas and Baruch are enlisted as slave laborers, working to build the AutoBahn. The family tries to hold out for visas to leave together. There is a work visa to England for Jonas, 18 years old. He must go if [...]

by Vicky Glikin Music plays a critical role in society as an integral part of social and political history, but more importantly as intrinsic to the total human experience, noted Irene Heskes, a historian and author specializing in sacred and secular Jewish music. This observation is especially apt when considering the music of the Holocaust, a historical event which left the worldwide Jewish community forever altered and which we, individually and communally, are still struggling to process and understand. While the repercussions of this unparalleled Jewish catastrophe are overwhelming, music offers a window through which we can speak about the [...]

by Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser A few weeks ago, I had this conversation with my 13-year-old daughter who was reading Elie Wiesel’s Night for a school assignment. I was driving her home with her in the back seat. I said, “You know, it’s not a subject I like to talk about.” And she said, “I know.” “It’s hard for me not to take it personally, especially when I think about my grandfather and how his sisters were murdered.”

by Dan Utley As Yom HaShoah approaches we find ourselves yet another year farther removed from the horrors of the last century.  As our survivors continue to depart from this world we struggle to find new ways to remember what we have not seen with our own eyes and teach new generations to have the vigilance needed for the future. Going forward we are faced with few but powerful tools in these efforts: museums, history books, and writings.

by Aron Hirt-Manheimer Jews throughout the world have been commemorating the Holocaust annually on the 27th of Nisan since 1953, when the Israeli government inaugurated this day of remembrance and linked to the heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising  of a decade earlier. The message was clear: even suicidal armed resistance is preferable to going like lambs to the slaughter. For many Holocaust survivors, like my parents, and for those of us in the “Second Generation,” the lessons of that terrible time are more varied and nuanced  than  simply extolling armed rebellion in the face of a powerful genocidal enemy.   And these [...]

By Roey Schiff Holocaust Remembrance Day, which comes upon us soon, is a time to reflect on the darkest tragedy of the Jewish people in the modern age (and some would say in all of history). The importance of having such a day is indisputable, but personally, I must say I find myself pondering the events of the Holocaust quite frequently. Whenever the temperature is freezing outside and, despite my multiple layers and warm clothing, I still feel cold, I can’t help but wonder how in the name of God people could survive the harsh European winter with only a [...]

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt…you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! -Deuteronomy 25:17, 19 In recent decades, trips to Poland for 11th graders have become de rigueur in high schools in middle class communities. These generally take place just before Pesach, and cost around $1,000-1,500. For many students they are powerful emotional experiences, though periodically the media latch on to some revelation about the kids’ adolescent behavior in the hotel in Poland. It seems a bit weird and maybe not fair to put adolescents in [...]