Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024: Love of Life, Joy, and Acts of Loving Kindness.

by Nina Fondiller Woldin

Last Saturday night I was on the way to a friend’s house for dinner when I faced a motorcade of cars flying Palestinian flags. It even included a sign truck comparing Israel to the Nazis. 

I hoped that this reminded those who were not aware, that Saturday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the United Nations in 2005. The date of January 27th was chosen because it is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.*

Holocaust remembrances are even more poignant than usual this year in the aftermath of October 7. We are painfully aware of the dramatic rise in anti-Semitic incidents, the failures of some friends and many political leaders to denounce the attacks and fully support Israel and the Jewish people, and the way the world has so quickly turned from the horrors of the Hamas attack to fights on campuses and local governments. We are reminded that acceptance and equality for Jewish people here in the United Sates is conditional – not guaranteed.  

I firmly believe that giving in to disillusion and anger because of this can destroy us.

Nonetheless, I firmly believe that giving in to disillusion and anger because of this can also destroy us. We need to stay true to who we are, and to remind us I quote Rabbi Noah Farkas, head of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles:

“While dealing with antisemitism unfortunately is part of what it means to be Jewish, it doesn’t define Jews. We are defined by our love of life, by our joy and by incredible acts of loving kindness.”

Join us at Chai Mitzvah to celebrate and experience all that our tradition offers.

 

*International Holocaust Remembrance Day is separate from Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day instituted in Israel in 1949.