Holocaust Memorial Day

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

~Albert Einstein

 

It is Yom HaShoah today. This is the International Holocaust Memorial Day. Today we remember the 6 million dead Jews who were brutally burned, gassed, and shot in the Holocaust.

 

When the sun set last night, at the beginning of Yom HaShoah, I saw a flash of  lightening outside my window--a thunderstorm started brewing just as the night started. It flashed a picture of memory in my mind--of all the horrific photographs of the anonymous burial grounds where my family is buried in mounds in Proskurov, Ukraine, (one is pictured here on the left). Proskurov used to be a highly populated Jewish city, and now it is a burial ground.

 

My lesson from my Rabbi today was very helpful to me. I told her I felt sick to my stomach thinking about the Holocaust and could not get out of bed in the morning to face it. She told me, we do not get sick about these things, we choose life. She helped  me heal from the atrocities I have experienced around this issue of the Holocaust, as a Jew. I stopped feeling the pain in my stomach, and my head cleared up. I was able to continue my good work as a leader in my community: being cheerful to all people, showing love to my neighbor, peace with my fellow, truth with my family, and justice with all humankind; as Adonai guides me to do.