Holocaust Remembrance Day Siren 2019 in Petah Tikva, Israel
Another year goes by, another Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel, the solemn atmosphere sets in the night before as business closes early and people are left to contemplate on the 6 million Jews systematically murdered in the early 1940s. Then, at 10:00am on Holocaust Remembrance Day itself, the whole of Israel comes to a standstill to mourn the Holocaust victims.
It is my hope that we will use such memorials not only to mourn the victims, but more importantly, to think about what we can learn from such a horrendous incident. Why is it more important to think about what we can learn from such incidents than to be in mourning? Ultimately, it is in order to prevent their reoccurrence.
Especially since there has been an exponential boost of anti-Semitic crimes and threats the last few years, then during Holocaust Remembrance Day, we should use the opportunity to consider the causes of Jew hatred, and what would be needed to change the attitude toward the Jewish people.
Consider some striking similarities between pre-Holocaust Europe and today’s world: on one hand, social division becomes felt more rampantly, Nazi, fascist and other extremist views gain popularity, and also anti-Semitic pressure increasingly mounts on the Jews. On the other hand, there is still time for the Jews to take a step toward fixing the problem in a positive light.
If we make a step toward establishing a positive connection above the intensifying social division, and especially, above the division among us Jews, according to what made us a Jewish people to begin with (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]), then we will open a tap of human consciousness, allowing the positive, connecting force in nature to pass through us to the world. By doing so, we will provide an innovative solution to social division, and the rising anti-Semitic sentiment in the world will overturn: a Jewish people united above their differences will ripple positively throughout humanity and people would become supportive of a Jewish people spreading a positive force throughout the world.
If we fail to make a step toward establishing a positive connection above the intensifying social division, at least in the State of Israel since it has the optimal conditions for unification to take place, i.e. if we fail to realize our role, to unite (“as one man with one heart,” “all of Israel are friends,” “love your neighbor as yourself”) and to be a conduit for the power of unity to spread worldwide (to be “a light unto nations”), then the demand for us to realize our role in the world—which comes in the form of anti-Semitism—will reach new extremes. Moreover, since today’s anti-Semitic sentiment is global, then the proportions of the harsh hand toward the Jewish people can potentially be much harsher than the Holocaust, which was concentrated only in Europe.
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