If I offered you the opportunity to learn an invaluable lesson, a lesson that won’t available in the not so distant future, would you take me up on the offer?
This Sunday, at 9:30AM – we will have the opportunity to mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) by listening to and learning from Hannah Temel – a long-time member of Ramat Shalom and a Holocaust survivor. Hannah will be the first to tell you that she is part of an incredible group of people that is getting smaller as survivors get older. No film, book, class or scholar can come close to teaching the Holocaust like a survivor can. Anyone who has had the opportunity to sit and learn from a survivor is transformed, coming away from the experience with a new sense of understanding of the nightmare that we call the Holocaust.
Soon, there will be a generation that will only be able to read the stories of the survivors – or watch their stories told in documentaries on the Holocaust. Gone will be the power of a face to face encounter with someone who lived what very few of us can even imagine. When this happens, the Holocaust will truly become history – part of our past – and, as a result, much easier to forget. But we can do our part to insure that this doesn’t happen. We can be the “next generation” – the generation that learned from the survivors. We can be the “next generation” that continues their stories, preserves their legacy and insures that the Holocaust is never forgotten.
On Sunday morning, you have the chance to learn from one of our own survivors. Hannah’s story is both shocking and inspiring. It needs to be heard – by as many of us as possible. I hope you will insure that you are part of the “next generation”. Join us on Sunday at 9:30AM for a powerful lesson.
