Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Is a Warning

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, we honor the memory of the six million Jews whose lives were extinguished in the Holocaust. Israel and Jewish communities around the world observe Yom HaShoah, commemorating one of the most horrific events in human history, more than 6 million Jewish men, women and children were tortured, persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime and its followers.

This year’s Yom HaShoah forewarns of a dark future for Jewry, coming just months after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and amid the jihad against the Jewish state.

Yom HaShoah has been observed in Israel since 1951, with the date anchored in law by the Knesset in 1959.

Netanyahu on eve of Yom Hashoah: If Jewish people don’t defend ourselves, nobody will

“Tonight we will commemorate the millions of our brothers and sisters who were murdered in the Holocaust,” Netanyahu says in a statement hours before the annual commemoration, which begins on Sunday evening.

Meeting with Netanyahu, two of the six survivors scheduled to light one of six torches representing the Holocaust’s six million victims at Yad Vashem this evening declared that the Jewish state “is the one and only refuge for the Jewish people” and that “gentiles who make promises are not to be trusted,” Netanyahu recalls.

“These heroic survivors are right. In the terrible Holocaust, there were great leaders in the world who stood by, so the first lesson of the Holocaust is this: If we don’t protect ourselves, no one will protect us. And if we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he says.

“Therefore, we will defend ourselves in every way, overcome our enemies and ensure our security — in the Gaza Strip, on the northern border, everywhere.”

A Yom HaShoah Unlike Any Other

By: Chaya Berkowitz, Times of Israel, May 6, 2024:

wo weeks ago, thousands of Jewish children around the world asked the famous four questions beginning with “Ma Nishtana?”, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” at the Passover seder. Tonight, as Yom HaShoah begins, the same question crosses my mind. Why is this Yom HaShoah different from other years?

I already know the answer. This year, unlike so many others before, the Jewish People are dealing with the aftermath of another, albeit smaller trauma. Almost seven months ago, over 1,200 were murdered during the October 7th massacre, with hundreds taken hostage, in the worst attack in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

We are a nation still grieving. Every few days, the IDF announces another death, a soldier who fell defending his or her country or the remains of someone taken captive having finally been identified.
Global reactions

Pro-Palestinian marches in the UK, physical assaults in France, the recent – and as-yet still ongoing – anti-Israel protests on American university campuses, and endless other antisemitic incidents around the world are on the rise. There’s little doubt that the rapid increase in Jewish hate crimes are being fueled by antisemites using the Israel-Gaza war as an excuse.

The wounds are fresh and unabating.

Continue reading…..