Yom HaShoah

Tonight is Erev Yom HaShoah...a Day of Remembrance for those who perished and those who survived in those terrible years.

There is so much, yet so little that one can say. The horror of the holocaust is beyond description, both from a general overall perspective and from each individual story. Seventy years from it's beginnings, 60 + years from the liberation of the camps we still haven't reached the number of Jews that existed in the world before it happened; then more than 16.5 million, today still well below that figure at 13 million Jews worldwide. What's even more sobering is that 70 years from it's beginning and 60+years from it's ending, we seemingly find ourselves standing on the precipice of another.

How can that be? The truth is that it never really ended, it just paused.

On the very day we stop to remember, the Iranian president, someone who has denied the holocaust ever happened, who repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel, and is currently building his nuclear arsenal to achieve that end, is the opening keynote speaker at a global conference in Switzerland, which was set up basically, to bash, condemn, and plan against Israel.

I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised that the US President has withdrawn his country's participation in this fiasco, as have many other countries. Still, several major western countries did attend: Britain, France and others...and yes, people walked out (representing 23 countries), but none of that alters the very fact the conference even took place, and that it did so without uproar, is still shocking

......A quiet silence is settling over the City. There will be ceremonies both tonight and tomorrow. I hear the helicopters approaching Yad Vashem as I write, bringing dignitaries to the locations where speeches will be given and flames of remembrance will be lit. This year the emphasis is on the children of the holocaust. During the "Every Person Has a Name" ceremony, the names of the children who perished will be read aloud.

All places of entertainment, including restaurants and coffee shops are closed this evening. They will reopen in the morning. The message is two-fold. One of the greatest tributes to those who died in the Shoah, and the statement of our hope for tomorrow, is our life today, especially our life here in Israel. But tonight, as we begin our remembrance, it is unthinkable that we should be entertained and make merry.

At 10:00 am tomorrow morning all of Israel will come to a stop. The sirens will sound for 2 minutes. Buses and automobiles will stop wherever they are. Business transactions, teaching, broadcasting, everything comes to a sudden halt, and people will get out of the cars, get up out of restaurant chairs, wherever one is, and stand for the two minute siren, while we remember our past, those who died, those who survived. It is the least we can do.

Two minutes of silence. The silence speaks the loudest...for there is really nothing adequate that one can say. And in the silence, may we also be strengthened with understanding regarding our future.