Sacred Obligations

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day also referred to at the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.  January 27th was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.

At the request of Australia, Canada, Israel, the Russian Federation and the United States, United Nations Resolution 60/7 urged every member nation of the U.N. to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, “one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities,” and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide. It rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an event and condemns all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief. It also calls for actively preserving the Holocaust sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labor camps and prisons, as well as for establishing a U.N. program of outreach and mobilization of society for Holocaust remembrance and education.

Today, and every day, we remember with reverence the 6,000,000 Jews and the millions of other victims murdered by the Nazi regime, and honor the survivors and heroes of this darkest chapter in human history.

As the years pass and the events of the Shoah become more distant, we bear the awesome responsibility of meaningfully conveying the memory and legacy of the Holocaust to new generations.

It is the reason that the Federation recently sponsored the return of the Hate Ends Now-Cattle Car exhibit with a focus on high school-age children;

 It is the reason why children and grandchildren of survivors addressed the student body at St Vincent’s Academy this past week;

It is the reason why the Federation Board of Governors created the Sherry Dolgoff Holocaust Art & Writing Contest Fund as a testament to Sherry’s commitment to educate and advocate on the issues associated with intolerance, xenophobia, hate, and bias;

It is the reason we sponsor the annual reading of child Shoah victims’ names every Yom Hashoah.

Remembrance is one of our most sacred obligations.

With antisemitism on the rise throughout the world, the lessons of the Holocaust are more important than ever.

Never forget.

 

Shabbat Shalom