May 2000 - נִיסָן .. אִיָּר תש״ס Nisan..Iyyar 5760

Monday, May 1st the Jewish community of Alameda County will gather at Temple Beth Sholom to commemorate Yom HaShoah uGevurah, Holocaust and Heroes Memorial Day. I sat on the committee that planned this year's event and I can promise you that the service with be meaningful and touching. The commemoration begins at 7:00 PM.

I have been thinking a great deal about the Holocaust lately. The subject comes up often when I teach people considering the choice of Judaism. It also came up when I made a presentation about Purim to the Rossmore chapter of ORT. I am trying to understand the lesson that we should learn from this horrific tragedy.

We know that six million Jews were murdered. We know that six million other civilians, almost all of the Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, trade unionists, and political dissidents, were also murdered. We know that Nazis and their allies and collaborators willingly carried out this murderous policy. We also know that anti-Jewish sentiments have existed for the last two thousand years and continue to this very day.

But what is the lesson to be learned? I believe that it is time to stop focusing on the anti-Jewish actions of others and begin to study the Jewish values that helped individuals and the Jewish people to survive. For too many years we have mistakenly used the symbol of the Holocaust as a club to keep our children Jewish. Too often I have heard it said, “You may forget that you are Jewish, but they will never let you forget.” Us versus them.

Many of our young people have not felt the sting of anti-Jewish words or actions. Prejudice no longer holds them back as it did fifty years ago. Young people do not want to be scared into being Jewish, they want to feel good about being Jewish. The young people and all of us need to relate to Judaism as a positive in our lives. We need to love our holy days, to feel the wonder of Shabbat, to bask in the glory of our history and tradition. Does this mean that we should not commemorate Yom HaShoah uGevurah?

Absolutely not! We must not forget! We must never forget the courage and the humanity of the Jews and others who struggled against the inhumanity of Hitler and his henchmen. We must not forget the bravery of those who fought back with guns, or with symphonies, or with schools, or with moral behavior in an immoral world. We must remember the innocence of the children, the piety of the rabbis, the scholarship of the historians, and the love of families. We should study the motivations that allowed the leaders to make life and death decisions for the many, and the motivations that allowed loved ones to make life and death decisions effecting only a few. We should study the lives of the righteous gentiles who saved Jews and others.

There are many positive lessons to learn from this great tragedy. Please join with us at 7:00 PM on Monday, May 1st, as we commemorate the victims and celebrate the survivors and their inspiring examples.

—Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff, Ph.D.

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