Reflections from Yom HaShoah

Yesterday was Yom HaShoah. It is the day in which Israelis remember those that lost their lives in the Holocaust and fought for their freedom against the Nazis. At schools around the country, Israeli children would take part in ceremonies commemorating the Holocaust. My fellow participants of Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv and myself were at a ceremony at the Bialik Rogozin School in South Tel Aviv. It is a school which has children of migrant workers, asylum seekers, and regular Israelis living in the area. As this is the case, a considerable percentage of the children at the school are not Jewish. As part of the ceremony, the entire school held a moment of silence outside in the playground. At 10 in the morning a siren was sounded all over Israel. When the siren was heard, the entire country stopped what it was doing and it observed the moment of silence. As we were outside, I saw people stopping their normal working day to stand in silence. There was even a Dan bus that stopped on its route for the siren. After the siren, we all would sing Hatikva, the national anthem. To see children who are not even Jewish or Israeli commemorate the Holocaust was amazing. It also was thought provoking. During the ceremony, the children and some of the staff would read poems, speeches, and sing songs commemorating the day. To see some of the kids rush through their poems or lines was as if they did not care or were bothered by something. I could tell which children were native Israelis and which children were not. Either way, to see them commemorating the Holocaust is forward thinking because genocide in all forms is a human event. It has happened to many peoples including Rwandans, Armenians, Bosnians, Darfurians, and Jews. To commemorate and stand against genocide is what I saw in the ceremony. For as long as those non Jewish and non Israeli students are living in Israel they will commemorate Yom Hashoah. When they leave, hopefully they will remember those who perished in World War II and those who stood up to the Nazis.

This world is full of people who deny what happened in World War II. Some claim it is a hoax by the Jews for sympathy and a state. Some claim that they want to continue the Holocaust and have called for the annihilation of Israelis and their state. To have a remembrance day and still know that there are people who want to see these things happen to the Jewish People. It bothers me extremely. It bothers me that some people claim that what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is equivalent to the Holocaust. It just is not so.Are there huge concentration camps set up in Gaza and in the West Bank were the Israeli Government is systematically murdering Palestinians in gas chambers? The Answer is no. Anyways, it was a day of inner reflection. Of who I am as a Jew, American, and human being. We all have our rights to live. Victims of the Shoah had these rights taken away from them. Let us not forget and always remember. לעולם לא תשכח