Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day or Holocaust and Heroism Day, occurs on the 27th of the Jewish calendar month of Nisan (this year May 4-5 on the Gregorian calendar). Shoah, which means catastrophe or utter destruction in Hebrew, refers to the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during World War II. This is a memorial day for those who died in the Shoah. The Shoah is also known as the Holocaust, from a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Day also celebrates the heroism of the resistance movements and those who fought for justice.
On May 1, 2016, Agudath Shalom, the local synagogue, and First Christina Church, a local Disciples of Christ congregation, will celebrate together a service of remembering. Also this service emphasizes their devotion to social justice in the memory of all those martyrs who died because of hate and all those rebellions that fought for peace and the Common Good.
As we near the end of the academic year, it is a time of joy, excitement and reflection. As you reflect I hope you will consider the ways in which you and your family work for justice as part of your spiritual journey. I have included a poem by my favorite Jewish poetess, Ruth F. Brin, which appears below. This is one of her reflections on Yom HaShoah. The last line of the poem is the “Shema” and it translates, “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one”.
When We Stood at Sinai
When we stood at Sinai we promised:
“We will hear and we will obey.”
Now we stand at Auschwitz and we promise: “We will remember human deeds and we will seek understanding.”
At Sinai we heard the revelation of God who spoke to Moses and to us.
At Auschwitz we seek the revelation of God who is silent and hidden.
We will cherish the memory of those who died as martyrs, and the memory of those who died resisting, and especially of those who died in terror.
We mourn our dead, our twice dead, dead once in the gas chambers, dead again in the dripping chambers of our hearts.
We will listen to the testimony of every witness, we will search among the books and the documents, among the very stones of Europe and Israel.
To find again the sparks of holiness, the undying sparks of the Jewish spirit.
Mourning our dead, we cannot be silent. Mourning them, we are forced into the jaws of politics, into the canine teeth of empire.
Mourning them, we make ourselves responsible for history, for we believe that the kingdom of God depends on human deeds.
We affirm our belief that we can choose life, as Moses told us. We affirm our belief that we can choose freedom, as America promises us.
We affirm our belief that our mourning and our remembering will strengthen our work for peace and justice, even in the face of Auschwitz.
We affirm our belief that we can hear, we can understand, and we can act, as we repeat the words we said at Sinai: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad!
Blessings in your remembering, that it strengthens your commitment to faith and justice,
Stephanie