Hi,

I hope you had a meaningful and enjoyable Passover.

… Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how important it is to remember.

And to make sure the world never forgets!.

Especially with what happened yesterday in Switzerland…

Mahmud Ahmadinejad was given a platform at the U.N Anti Racism conference.

The Swiss president was shown welcoming him with a very broad smile!

And how did the Swiss president defend his meeting?

A meeting with a Holocaust denier who would love to wipe Israel off the map?

“Switzerland maintains its neutrality!”

It should make us shiver!

… This is the “big picture” of remembering the Holocaust.

I think there is something else we should think about.

Especially today.

Because I go through this experience every Shabbat as I walk to Synagogue.

I see an elderly man on his way to Synagogue.  A Holocaust survivor.

I know him and I know his children.

They are the most special people you could ever meet.  The most sensitive and the most giving.

Among the most admired people in the community.   

And every week I ask myself the same question.

“After experiencing suffering beyond imagination. 

Where the Germans tried to rob you of your dignity.  Of your humanity.

How did you go on and raise children like that?”

… We should stand in awe of people like this.

And of every Holocaust survivor who rebuilt their life and raised good children.

They are testimony to an idea that the Nazis wanted to destroy.

That every human being has a neshama.  A soul.   Something G-dly within them.

In the words of the Torah, every human being is created in the Image of G-d.

That neshama gives a person the ability to do G-dly things.

And it can not be destroyed. 

… Thank G-d, we have not been tested the way Holocaust survivors were.

But the best way we can honor them?  And learn from them?

Is by trying to be more G-dly. 

More giving!

All the best,