Int'l Holocaust Remembrance Day is about more than terror, genocide - opinion

• Published date: 27 January 2023

This week, I had the honor to commemorate this somber occasion by participating in a hearing hosted by the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs that took place at Yad Vashem, the world-renowned museum and memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust

Almost eight decades after the liberation of the camps, the last survivors of the Holocaust are passing away. It is our duty to ensure their stories are honored and never forgotten. Only by learning from the past can we understand what causes horrors such as these, to ensure that they are never again repeated in the future. Museums such as Yad Vashem and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, among others, ensure the memory of the Shoah will live on.

The design of the hall at Yad Vashem, in particular, reminds us of the nightmare of the Holocaust, but also the possibility and hope for the future. In that stunning building, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, passing from the darkness of the Holocaust into the light, overlooking the Jerusalem woods.

The pathway evokes the wisdom of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov – that the whole world is a narrow bridge, but we must not be afraid. We are not afraid today. We are not afraid to live out our Judaism, whether in Israel or America or elsewhere. We are not afraid to call out antisemitism wherever we see it, including when it masquerades as a critique of the State of Israel. When we say, "Never Again," we mean it. No one – not Hamas in the Gaza Strip, nor ignorant and antagonistic social media stars, or for that matter, any of their allies – will intimidate us.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Reinforcing "Never Again"

THE HOLOCAUST continues to impose a heavy responsibility on both American Jews and the State of Israel. We have a duty to ensure that the remaining survivors can live out their days in dignity. We also must continue to support restitution efforts, as seen in the work of the Claims Conference and other organizations.

Attempts at reclamation are not over. Just last week, members of the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy family filed a suit to recover Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, looted from their forebears. It is never too late for justice to be done.

We are now pivoting to a new era, in which our obligation and focus must shift to education and awareness. In the US the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations advocates for Holocaust education to be enshrined into school...