the following comes from "The Lekarev Report" (lekarev.org)
Holocaust Memorial Day
Precisely at 10:00 am this morning, sirens blared throughout the entire country of Israel and everyone stopped. Cars on highways and city streets immediately halted, as you see on the right in Jerusalem, drivers stepped out beside their vehicles, lowered their heads and there was absolute silence for two minutes while a nation mourned the loss of six million of its people at the hands of the Nazis in World War II.
During the reading of the names at the Knesset today of those who perished, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres read out the names of family members who were killed in the Holocaust, participating in a Knesset ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. President Peres - who recited the names of his grandparents - took a moment to speak of his memory of them: "When we said goodbye in the train station, before I left to come to Israel, they gave me just two words - 'be Jewish.'"
Cabinet ministers, MKs and survivors of the World War II Nazi genocide also took part in the state ceremony.
Holocaust Memorial Day is an intensely personal day for Israelis as a very large majority of our citizens lost relatives in the camps of eastern Europe. For those who didn't lose personal family members, the magnitude of the atrocities against our own people staggers the mind and the alarming rise of anti-Semitism across the world at this time gives this day an additional measure of pain and a quiet but very real anxiety.
March of the Living in Auschwitz
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi visited the Warsaw Ghetto and a Jewish cemetery in Poland ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, ahead of leading thousands of Jews from around the world today in the annual March of the Living at the Auschwitz concentration camp. It is the first time that an IDF Chief will lead the march.
Ashkenazi visited the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, Poland to pay his respects to the Jews who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Ashkenazi stood silent for a few moments and then said: "The answer to what we see here is us, the State of Israel, the IDF and victory."
The Chief met with Jews who continue to live in Poland and visited the Nozyk synagogue. He also visited a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, located at the site of the home used as a command center by Mordechai Anielewicz, the local commander of the Jewish uprising against the Nazis.
"In this place Mordechai Anielewicz didn't just hide from the Nazis," Ashkenazi noted, "he also fought. It is fitting that the soldiers of the IDF soldiers learn the story of this uprising. That is why we came to admire and salute the heroes who - despite the realities and balance of power, and the fact that they were untrained civilians - got up and took action and fought. Today we call these principles and moral norms."
"They knew they had no chance of winning, but they fought nevertheless. That is bravery. The importance of victory is a norm for the IDF and a central part of it, alongside remembrance and study of the Holocaust."
Before today's March of the Living, each participant was given the following pledge to recite as well as the words to Hatikva (Israel's national anthemn) and the mourner's Kadish (prayer for mourners). The pledge reads as follows:
"We pledge to keep alive and honor the legacy of the multitudes of our people who perished in the Holocaust.
We pledge to fight anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, Holocaust denial and all other forms of hatred directed towards the Jewish people and Israel.
We pledge to fight every form of discrimination manifested against any religion, nationality or ethnic group.
We pledge to actively participate in the strengthening of Jewish life in the Diaspora and Israel.
We pledge to increase our knowledge of our Jewish heritage and to pass on a love of Jewish life and learning to the next generation.
We pledge to give tzedaka, to assist in helping the Jewish needy, wherever they may live in the world.
We pledge to involve ourselves in tikkun olam, to build a better world for all members of the human family.
After the Shoah the promise of 'Never Again' was proclaimed. We pledge to create a world where 'Never Again' will become a reality for the Jewish people and, indeed, for all people.
This is our solemn pledge to the Jewish people, to those who came before us, to those of our generation, and to those who will follow in future generations."
No comments:
Post a Comment