Thursday is Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial Day.
We will proclaim: “Never Again!” Never again will we allow ourselves, our people to become the target of hatred. Never again will we allow anti-Semitism to undermine us.
Never again will we allow a Jew to be killed because she was a Jew.
“Never Again!”
But it just happened in Southern California this weekend.
It happened in Pittsburgh six months ago.
And we know anti-Semitism is still very much a dangerous reality. Anti-Semitic attacks, specifically violent attacks, are on the rise.
Crimes of hate against Jews and members of other faiths and ethnicities are a horrific symptom of a dangerous plague that is tearing through our own country and through the global community. Christchurch, Tree of Life, Sri Lanka.
And yet, we continue to say, “Never Again.”
“Never Again,” as if it is a catchphrase or a slogan as opposed to a call to action.
This Thursday, we will mourn the six million innocent Jewish souls that were killed in the Holocaust. As we do so, we will continue to mourn the murder of Lori Kaye just as we mourned those killed in Pittsburgh.
“Never Again!”
But attacking religious institutions filled with innocent people, attacking sacred spaces because of what these spaces represent – this is happening – again and again and again.
It is an epidemic.
One that won’t be curbed simply by saying “Never Again.” Simply by mourning the dead. Simply by remembering the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah.
No, it is not enough to say, “Never Again!” We must figure out how to live these words and do everything in our power to make them our reality.
During the Holocaust, some 30,000 brave Jews, many of them teenagers, put their lives on the line to resist the monstrous hatred of the Nazis. They are known as the Jewish partisans and they used various techniques to stand up to Hitler and his forces. Their heroic efforts spared the lives of countless souls and remind us to this day that many of our people took a bold stand when faced with pure evil. The Jewish partisans remind us that the Jewish story during the Holocaust is not just about being the innocent victims of Hitler’s madness, not just about being crushed by hate, not just about being silenced or forced into hiding because of fear. The Jewish story – our story – includes the heroes and heroines who stood up, in harrowing conditions, and said enough is enough.
Many do not realize that the full name of the commemoration we observe this Thursday is Yom HaShoah V’HaGevurah meaning a day of memorializing the Holocaust and the heroes who rose up during this nightmare.
It was 76 years ago, during April and May of 1943, that Jewish partisans – resistance fighters – defied the Nazis and fought for freedom and dignity by leading what has become known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Faced with deportation to Nazi death camps, many of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto fought back against the Nazis, hindering their sinister efforts. While, ultimately, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto, the actions of the Jewish partisans remain a powerful moment in Jewish history. A moment when a strong, proud and defiant people took a stand and tried with all their might to say, “Enough! Not on our watch!”
As we prepare to officially memorialize the Holocaust on Thursday, as we find ourselves once again mourning the loss of another innocent Jew, killed by an anti-Semite in her synagogue while she attempted to protect her rabbi, let us do so by observing Yom HaShoah V’HaGevurah – a day of remembering the six million we lost and honoring the brave souls who stood up to the evil and continue to inspire us today. Let us focus on the heroes who put everything on the line in an attempt to keep “Never Again” from ever being necessary by acting in a way that said “Not on My Watch. Not on my watch will you attack my people.”
Yes, despite the efforts of the partisans, six million of us were still slaughtered. But not without a fight – a fight that did save lives. A fight that captures an incredibly important part of who we are A fight that, in our own way, we must continue. Not simply by saying “Never Again.” Not simply by remembering. But by finding the gevurah – the strength, the hero inside of us. By bringing out that strength in the next generation. By not just saying “Never Again,” but by living an empowered life, one in which we live the words, “Never Again on my watch.”