Yom Hashoah v Hagvurah - Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023

It has been a very busy month - between Pesach (Passover), several weddings, a funeral,  and other events here in  Israel - including family visits and work obligations.  As well, as you probably  know, there is quite a great deal going on politically in Israel.   But I will come back to that in another blog soon.

Today is Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah - the Day of Remembrance  of the Holocaust and Bravery in Israel - and around the world and I wanted to write some reflections about this  day.

Holocaust memorial day in Israel is one of the most important and one of the most sombre days of the year.  In cities across the country, ceremonies are held in city centres and are extremely well attended.  Restaurants, stores and shops close early on the evening of Yom HaShoah.  People put on white shirts and walk over to the local commemorations.

We went to the Ra'anana commemoration.  The theme this year was 80 years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  The one-hour event included a torch lighting  by a survivor  of the uprising.  Teen participants in Jewish youth movements lit hundreds of candles to symbolize the  millions  of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

There were several  readers - who read out diary entries, poetry and other writings from people  who perished over the course of the Warsaw uprising - or others who somehow  managed to survive.  There were several musical performances as well which were powerful and emotional.  The mayor of Ra'anana, Chaim Broido, spoke about his parents - who were Holocaust survivors - and others spoke about the  horror of the events that took place in Warsaw.  The memorial closed with the chanting of "El Maleh Rahamim" by a Ra'anana Hazan (cantor) and then  the singing of Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem.

We walked back  home - and turned on the TV.   All of the Israeli stations show Holocaust programming on the  evening  of Yom HaShoah.  We watched one program about a heroic French Nun, Sister Denise Bergon, who saved more than 80 Jewish children - and the story, in particular, about two  French sisters who she managed to  keep alive.

We watched a few other programs, including a moving interview with several Holocaust survivors and the way in which their children have made efforts to spread their stories to as many people as possible.  

This morning, at 10 a.m., across Israel, there was two-minute long siren.  Everything stops across the country.  People who are travelling stop their cars and get out and stand  next  to the cars until the alarm is over.  It is extremely powerful.

Later this morning, I watched the National Holocaust commemoration  at  Yad Vashem featuring Israel's Knesset members, various rabbis, Supreme Court judges, survivors, and others who all participated in different ways.  The  last part of the event was "the reading of names."  Various participants, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chief Justice Hayat, cabinet members, opposition Knesset members and others - all took turns coming up to the microphone  and telling the story of a few Holocaust victims - and reading out the names of these victims and  others.

So many Knesset members and other Israeli officials told the story of their grandparents or great grandparents - or uncles or aunts - or other family members.  So many people were affected by the Holocaust - and lost so many family members.   I couldn't help but think about my family members who perished during the Holocaust as well.

My great grandfather, Moshe Yaakov and  his wife  Channa,  were murdered on August 16 or 17, 1941 by Lithuanian  Nazi sympathizers in the town of Kamajai, Lithuania.  We were later told by cousins of ours, who miraculously survived the war, that it was the son of  neighbours of my great grandparents - who actually murdered them.

On the other side of my family, my great grandparents Avram and Chaya were sent by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.   Their son, Gabriel (my grandfather's brother), was also sent there with his wife and two children.  Gabriel was separated from the rest of the family and  somehow managed to survive the war.  He was eventually liberated from Auschwitz, emaciated, but alive.   His parents, his wife and his two children were taken away from him.  He never saw them again.  They were all murdered at Auschwitz.  After being liberated at the end of the war, Gabriel was sent to a displaced  person's camp.  He was able to find my grandfather and reunite with him in New York - and Gabriel eventually remarried and had one  daughter  (my dear cousin, who passed away just over a year ago).  

On both sides of my family - there were many others who were murdered - and whose names we do not have.  But for those whose names we do have - I wanted to state their names - in line  with the  well known Yad Vashem theme - "Each Person  has a Name."  

The Nazis and their collaborators not only sought to murder  all of the Jews in Europe.  They also sought to erase their identities  and  their memories.  They gave each imprisoned person a number and seared these numbers onto the arms of  the prisoners.  My uncle Gabriel  had a number like this burned onto his arm.

Many Jews in Europe were murdered - and in many cases - their identities were unknown.  Many were buried in mass graves or murdered or otherwise vanished.  And one of the key projects of Yad Vashem  has been to try and collect as much information as possible  about the victims - to dignify these people by finding their names, their  identities  and telling their stories.

To see the various Knesset members each coming up to the podium and recounting the names and stories of  different victims was not only powerful and emotional - it was also  another reminder of the importance of Israel as a Jewish state and as the only real defender, protector and haven  for the Jewish people.  For this one day - Knesset members from different sides of the aisle put  aside their  differences and all took part in remembering, dignifying and  honouring the  victims of  the Holocaust - and recounting stories of many  brave men, women and children who somehow  fought  back or  otherwise  survived.

May the memories of all of  the victims be for a  blessing - Y'hi Zichram Baruch.

Tisha B'Av 2021 - Is "Baseless Hatred" an appropriate answer?

Last night  and today we observed Tisha B'Av, a Jewish holy day of mourning, fasting and sadness.  Tisha B'av commemorates the destruction  of the  first and second Temples in Jerusalem, in 586 b.c.e and 70  c.e. respectively.  Over the centuries since then, many other horribly devastating events are said to have taken place  or started on Tisha B'Av, including events connected with the Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion of  Jews in 1492, the Chmielniki  Massacres of Jews in 1648 in Poland Lithuania  and events of the Holocaust, particularly in 1942.  Tisha B'Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, although the Israeli-observed days of Yom Hazakaron (Day of Remembrance of Soldiers and Victims of Terror) and Yom Hoshoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) are also very difficult days of loss and remembrance.  

Unlike other Jewish "holy days," Tisha B'av does not prohibit "working" or doing the various things that are normally prohibited on Shabbat.  But it is a day of  mourning, fasting and many other prohibitions.

I thought I would write a few of my own reflections on the day and how I observed it this year.  

I didn't grow up in a home that observed Tisha B'Av.  After my Bar-Mitzvah, I began to take an interest in the various holy days in the Jewish calendar, especially some of the ones that our  family did not  observe.   We had always  observed the major holidays - Yom Kippur,  Rosh  Hashanah, Pesach and the "minor" holidays of Chanukah and Purim.  But we were less observant of  others.  On a USY trip to Israel in 1982, our group observed Tisha B'Av fully and since then,  more or less, I have been observing the holy day, though not necessarily in the strictest and most traditional way.

The holy  day, like all Jewish holy days begins  the night before, just before sunset.  We eat a pre-fast meal before sunset and try to drink a reasonable amount of water.  Those who observe Tisha B'Av traditionally  do not eat meat (or chicken) for nine days before the holy day other than on Shabbat.  So normally, the meal before the fast is vegetarian - often lentil soup, a hard boiled egg, some vegetables and other vegetarian food.  Although spicy food is not normally recommended before a fast, we had lots of homemade Indian food left over from Shabbat and most of it was  vegetarian.  So I wound up having a pre-fast home cooked Indian  buffet.  It worked out fine.  After that, of course, it would be no food or water for about 26 hours.

I debated going to religious services in person in the evening but decided to join my shul's Zoom service.  The evening service ("Maariv") includes the reading of the  book of Lamentations (Eichah) one of the five  Megilloth (scrolls) that are part of the collection of Jewish  holy books.  After that, we had a study session discussing the classic Jewish commentators' explanation of why the temples were destroyed.  Our presenter (thanks Shoshana) selected five different parables from our sources to provide the answer.  And the answer, in short, is..."intra-community baseless hatred."  Yes, that is the traditional answer to the Jewish question of these horrible tragedies.  How do we reconcile the concept of  an omni-benevolent,  omni-powerful, omi-present and omni-prescient God with such terrible suffering?  For the destruction of these two great Temples and the societies that housed them, our sages have concluded that the  answer was "baseless hatred" among the Jews - the hatred  of one another which destroyed the fabric of our society internally and led to destruction.  This internal strife led to our demise,  the murder of tens of thousands of Jews and our exile from the land of  Israel (for almost 2,000 years)  - in short, a very severe punishment.

Yet, I, for one, have never really found this answer satisfying.  Can we really blame ourselves for being invaded and conquered by a foreign  army, much stronger than us?  Is that what consoles us and causes us to renew our faith in God  - that essentially, "we deserved it?"  I find that  hard to take and not very persuasive.  Our Rabbis will argue that this answer compels us to try and act more appropriately with one another  - that it is a challenge  to our behaviour that demands ongoing vigilence and response.  That may be something worth striving for, certainly, but  it  does not seem to explain or excuse these events, certainly not to me. Nevertheless, in the spirit of inquiry, we raise these questions  and argue about them  over this  time period.  Jewish holy days are always filled with topics to question, discuss and argue about.  

So after the Synagogue  study  session, we decided to check out some of the Tisha B'Av programming on Israeli TV.  Now this is probably not something that many of traditional  Tisha B'Av observers would do, even though the use of electricity is not strictly prohibited on Tisha B'Av, but there were  some really fantastic programs on that wrestled with many of these issues.  Indeed one of the big  advantages of being in Israel on any day of importance on the Jewish calendar is releavant and interesting tv programming.

Of the many different choices, we chose a program on Israeli channel 11 called "Question and Answer."  The program was an eight-part series - each episode involving a dialogue between two  people.  In each case, one of the people  was  a person who was born and raised in a very religious (observant)  family and  later became secular.  These people are known in Israel as people  who "returned to a life of  questioning" (from the Hebrew "Hozer l'sheilah").   The other person in each episode was a person who was raised secular and later  become religious, known  in Israel as a person who "returned to the answers" (from the Hebrew "Hozer b'Tshuvah").  The idea was to match people  up who would make for  interesting  conversations with some  shared interests - and then  to  hold animated but respectful conversations of about 45 minutes.  In these discussions, the participants wrestled with their  life stories, their change  from one  religious  viewpoint to another - and various texts, sources, poems and songs that inspired them, while contrasting the conclusions that they arrived at with those of their co-participant.  The series was created as a  Tisha B'Av series -  to bring  people together with different  viewpoints but to overcome  "baseless  hatred" and find some  common ground.  In many of the episodes, this worked out quite nicely.   This is the link to all of the episodes but it is in Hebrew and I am not sure that a translation is available yet.  We have watched 6 of the 8 episodes and really enjoyed it.

Some of the participants are very well known.  For example, one episode featured the author Yochi Brandeis, who is a Torah and Talmud scholar who grew up in a very observant home but is now  no longer a "halachic" Jew. She writes fictional  novels based on characters of the Bible.   I should say that she sometimes attends our shul Hod VeHadar in Kfar Saba.  She was matched up with an author who had grown up secular but was now a member of the Breslev Ultra-Orthodox community.  Another episode featured Rabbi Kalman Samuels, who grew  up as a secular Jew in Vancouver, Canada.  He came to Israel, became observant and eventually founded "Shalva" an  organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities in Israel.  As an educator, Rabbi Samuels was paired up with another educator, the principal of a secular high school in Israel, who had grown up in a very observant family but become secular.  

This was not the kind of TV program that one sees every day.  It was quite philosophical, with lots of food for thought, even on a fast day where eating is prohibited.  After most of the episodes, I thought that I woud really enjoy sitting and chatting  with one or both of the participants.   Through the various episodes, there was lots of discussion on some of the most challenging theological issues.   For example, how do observant Jews deal with and  explain tragedy and  disaster?  Of course no one had any conclusive answers to this question but the exchanges were  fascinating.  A very relevant  question of course, especially on Tisha B'Av.   

One episode featured quite a bit of dialogue about the role of women in observant Jewish life, especially Orthodox Judaism versus the secular life that one of the women moved to - and the  other abandoned.  This was probably one of the common themes, even in episodes that involved discussions between two men - the different  approaches to women and women's rights between the "observant" and the  "secular" and what effect that  had on the lives of each of the participants.  No one, ultimately, had any answers to these questions but the discussions were very thought provoking.  I will leave this topic for another blog.

Although the series was called  "question and answer," I would not say that it set out to provide any "answers."  The main purpose was to bring people together, explore differences and watch them  leave the discussion room together recognizing that people can have differences but still live together  in the same country, work things out and  respect each other.  A very important  lesson these  days, not only in Israel with its intense and gaping political chasm but of course in many other countries as well.

Tisha B'Av morning services are a bit different than other Jewish holy day services.  Since it is not considered a "Yom Tov," it is a day where observant Jews put on Tefillin and a Tallit.  But since it is such a sad day, and we are occupied with mourning, we do not put these on in the morning (like most other days - other than Shabbat and holy days).  Instead, we sit on the floor, in the dark and read "kinot" at the morning  services, which are essentially sad poems, written throughout the centuries, mourning the  destruction of Jerusalem in different ways.

Yad VaShem

As I said, we tend to do things a bit differently, though we are not the only ones.  When I am in Israel on Tisha B'Av (I am often  in Toronto this time of year), we try to go to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial  Museum  in Jerusalem, Israel.   Many Israelis have the same idea.  The Museum was quite full today - or  at least up to its Covid capacity.  You must book in advance but there is no charge to visit.

Yad Vashem is a very difficult place.  Its multi-media exhibits trace the rise of the Nazi party in Germany from 1933 (and  preceding events) and include increasingly horrifying exhibit rooms with pictures, movies, testimonial videos from survivors and Holocaust era items.  You move  from the the initial pogroms and  kristallnacht in 1938, a date on which synagogues and  Jewish owned shops across German were  vandalized and destroyed,  Jews were attacked and killed and  books were  burned  - to the development of Jewish Ghettos, Nazi  concentration  camps and ultimately the history, development  and  operation of the death  camp system. It is graphic, shocking, upsetting and brutal, no matter  how many times you see it.  It is simply unfathomable that the Germans set up a whole system  of  death camps, crematoria, railway lines, ghettos, a whole  industry and process for the systematic murder and incineration of six million Jews  while the world was silent - and most  countries outright refused to accept any refugees or Jewish emigrants that would have dramatically lowered the number of murdered Jews.

Yad Vashem approaches the Holocaust, in general, from a particularist rather than a universalist viewpoint.  It is very much focused on the history of the Jewish people, before during and after the Holocaust, who helped save Jews and who didn't  and what can be  done, in particular for the Jewish people to ensure that this does not happen again.  It may be  no surprise, since Yad Vashem is located in Israel, that the Yad Vashem  answer, ulimately, is that  only a strong Israel can ensure that the Jews are protected from a recurrence.  I won't get into this now in great detail, but this does contrast with the much more  universalist message of the Washington D.C.  Holocaust Memorial Museum which focuses on universal tolerance as the answer to the question of  how to avoid  and prevent genocides.   Although I have been very impressed by the  Washington  museum (I have visited it three  times), I have felt that it de-emphasizes that  Jewish aspect of the Holocaust, excessively in my view.

But getting back to the tie-in and the question of why visit a Holocaust museum on Tisha B'av - the theme that I return to - the most theologically challenging - is the same  theme that we contemplate on Tisha B'Av.  Why did this happen?   How could it happen?  Can we answer it by saying "baseless hatred" and live with that  answer?  That sounds all too easy to me,  on the one hand, and on the other hand it sounds like it blames these six million people for the fate that befell  them at the hands  of murderous external forces.  Can we really say that the  Jews of the Temple period were massacred by the Roman army because of "baseless hatred" within the Jewish community?  And  can we say that  the  European Jews were murdered en mass  by the  Germans and their collaborators because of "baseless hatred?"  That sounds like a very lame answer to me.   I think it is one of the paramount challenges to faith for Jews  everywhere.  What kind of God  would let this happen  if there was a such thing as an "interventionist" God?

This is one side of the equation but for many Jews, there is a another side as well.   The Jews, this group of people, which numbered  somewhere around 15 million just  before the second World War, had survived the exile from the land  of  of Israel and remained a people for more than 2,000 years, albeit a people spread out across the world.  Hitler's goal was to  annhilate and destroy the Jews everywhere - our  books, our  traditions, our  Torahs and ritual  objects and our philosophy and religious beliefs.  For some survivors, descendants of  survivors and  other family members, the Holocaust and the six million murdered Jews meant that "God was  dead" and they couldn't imagine continuing to be Jewish or believe in anything after these  events.   They could not fathom that any type of traditionally conceived God would allow such events to take place.  From some conversations with one of my grandfathers, Yerachmiel (Z"L), I would say that he was, at least  partially in this camp.  His parents were murdered in August 1942 by Lithuanian Nazi collaborators - who happened to be the children of some their neighbours in Kamajai, Lithuania.

For others, and this is the other side of the equation, there has been a sense that so many Jews were murdered because of their heritage and a very rich bundle  of  tradition, philosophy, religious practice, scholarship, liturgy, community and  music - as well as so many other things.  How can we just abandon this inheritance that  has been passed on to us from generation to generation, over more than 2,000 years?   Don't we owe it to our ancestors to stand  up and say - "we are still here" and to honour at least  some of the legacy that they passed along to us?   And what does it mean to preserve, honour and continue these traditions without genuine belief?  Or are there ways to redefine God and Godliness that still preserves the notion that humankind is subservient to a higher purpose?  Such difficult questions.  For the many of you  who know me well, of course it is not a surprise that I am in the latter  of these camps.   And I have at least one cousin and a number of friends as well in the same camp.  But it is something to wrestle with all the time and especially on days like Tisha B'Av.

Perhaps I should add that there are some in Israel, and around the  world, particlarly many who are very observant, who believe that the rebirth of the land of Israel was a divine miracle and that the answer is that we simply don't understand or  can't comprehend God's overall plan.  So they may not say "baseless hatred" is the explanation for the Holocaust but in their view, God gets a free pass since we mere mortals do not understand the overall plan.  I think that this can be viewed as extremely disrespectful to the many who were murdered but I'll leave it at that for now.

In case you are wondering, Yom Kippur, coming up in less than 6 weeks, is much easier,  emotionally.  It is not really a "sad" day.  It is one of solemnity and observance that involves fasting.   But is is also a day of singing, prayers, discussion and togetherness that often brings people more  towards renewal and hope than sad days like Tisha B'Av that leave us searching for answers to horrific events.  

We concluded Tisha B'Av  by attending  Minhah (early evening service) and Ma'ariv (last evening service)  in person at the shul and then came home to  eat.   We  actually watched two of the 8 episodes  of "Question Answer" after the holy day ended and  we have two  left.  

But as I have tried to illustrate - the TV episodes each covered the struggle between a religious and a secular person, trying to make sense of what it means to be Jewish, on Tisha B'Av, while wrestling with these pentultimate questions that are particularly poignant  some 76 years after the end  of the Holocaust and the end of  World War II.   Perhaps I liked it so much because I saw different  sides of my own personality and philosophy engaged in a live  debate over the  course of 6 different  episodes.  I may not have related to a few of the characters but of the 12  participants that we have seen  so far, I would probably say that at  least 8 of them had things to say that resonated deeply.  

And so, ultimately, "Questions and Answers," the name of a TV series, is also an apt title for  Tisha B'Av as it is for many Jewish holy days.  Many questions and perhaps, not enough answers.  But lots of engagement and vibrancy.  And that is what challenges us, gives us pause and engages us in thinking about so many of these all consuming topics.

Lots more to  write about - the current Covid Delta outbreak in Israel and everywhere, the Israeli political situation and some other Israeli news items. But I have to leave myself material for future blogs.  As always, I  hope that you have enjoyed reading this and wish everyone the best  of health.  

Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah - 2015

It is now 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps and concentration camps.  The liberation marked the end of the Holocaust, during which some six million Jews were murdered.  This evening marked the start of Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah in Israel - Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.  We began our commemoration of the day by attending the City of Ra'anana's Yom Hashoah ceremony at the centre of the city - "Yad L'Banim."

On the evening of Yom Hashoah, stores and restaurants are closed across the country.  The main street in Ra'anana is closed off to traffic.  Residents come from across the city to the ceremony, which is very powerful.

The event included a speech by Ra'anana's Mayor Ze'ev Bielski, whose grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust.  His young parents had left years before the war began to travel to Israel to help build the not yet established state.  He was named after his late grandfather.  It was a powerful speech.  He spoke about his participation in the March of Living in Poland.  He recalled that as he had sat at the main March of the Living ceremony in Poland a few years ago, he had wrapped himself in a Tallith.  He had looked across at the Polish dignitaries who were in attendance and he had felt pride at participating in an event which recognized that Jewish pride and the Jewish people had not been defeated.  Despite the fact that one third of the world's Jews were murdered, the surviving Jewish people had found a way to establish the State of Israel and to embark on a rebuilding process.

Six Holocaust survivors were called up individually to light six different candles.  As each survivor came to the podium, usually accompanied by grandchildren, a narrator described the survivor's life story.  These were all people who had lost almost all of their families in the Holocaust.  They were also almost all people who had come to Israel after the war, married and established families with children, grandchildren and in some cases, great grandchildren.  Some were accompanied by grandchildren who now serve in the Israeli Defence Forces.  The theme echoed the theme of the Mayor's speech.  That despite the terrible ordeals that these survivors had faced, they had, each in their own way, and against incredible odds, made it to Israel and participated in building the Jewish state and rebuilding the Jewish nation.

The ceremony also featured several musical pieces, with orchestral accompaniment including a Czech piece that had been written by Thereisenstadt prisoner who had perished in 1944.  Her musical composition had somehow been preserved and was now being performed in Ra'anana some 70 years after the liberation of the camp.

After the special El Maleh Rachamim prayer, the evening closed with a power Hatikvah sung by a teary eyed crowd.

It was really one of those ceremonies that brought home the great fortune of being able to live and participate in a Jewish state, something that would have been unimaginable to the Jews of Europe during wartime. 

Tomorrow, Israelis across the country will observe two minutes of silence, wherever they are, as sirens wail across the nation to mark the time. 

The thought on the minds of many Israelis will be the enormous burden, responsibility and obligations of being the next generation of Jewish people - faced with preserving, continuing and strengthening the Jewish people, while defending the country against the existential threats it faces.  It is now up to this and future generations to ensure that "Never Again" is a reality.

Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah 5772 - April 2012

Tonight marks that start of Yom Hashoah v'Hagvurah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes' Remembrance Day, in Israel and across the world. The annual date for commemoration of the Holocaust coincides closely with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 69 years ago.

As people across the world, Jews and non-Jews alike, try to come to grips with the enormity of evil, the murder of six million Jews and millions of non-Jews, Israel is holding commemorative ceremonies across the country.

According to Yedioth Ahronot, one of Israel's major daily newspapers, there are approximately 198,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today. Last year, some 11,700 died and the remaining survivors are not getting any younger. Many of these survivors are still able to tell their stories and we hope that we will have the privilege and opportunity to listen and to hear their words.

In many of the ceremonies, detailed accounts about specific Holocaust victims or survivors are recited. One of the recurrent themes of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Center, Yad VaShem, has been the idea of individual dignity. "L'kol Ish Yesh Shem" - Each person has a name. Despite the fact that six million people were murdered, we remember that each person had a name, a life, dreams, hopes and a family. Each person had a story. By recounting these individual stories, of victims and of survivors, we remember the individual humanity of the millions of victims and survivors.

For some, Holocaust commemoration is accompanied by a universalist message; that people everywhere must fight prejudice and hatred and that we must be vigilant in ensuring that the world takes steps to actively prevent and stop genocide from occurring. This is the message that is powerfully imparted at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Washington, D.C.

While many in Israel share this view and reflect on this universalist message, there is another message that is of equal if not greater importance. For Israelis and for many Jews across the world, the Holocaust demonstrated that the Jewish people could not rely on anyone other than themselves for their survival as a people. That message resonates at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial Center, which has a less universalist focus than its newer Washington counterpart. For many Israelis, only a strong and powerful Israel can protect the Jewish people against the many worldwide threats.

At this evening's Yom Hashoah V'Hagvurah commemoration in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu cited the Iranian threat, an existential threat to Israel and the Jewish people that focuses on the latter of these lessons. Yet in a world in which a Norwegian Nazi-inspired mass murderer is trying to use a trial to promote a message of hatred, and the Syrian dictatorship continues to massacre Syrians, we cannot help but also consider the other lessons of the Holocaust as well.

Aside from the importance of Israeli strength and Jewish resolve, and of the importance of the universalist fight against evil and intolerance, tonight and tomorrow, above all else, we remember the millions of victims who perished during the Holocaust, their lives and their stories, and the lives and stories of the survivors who were scarred for life.