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Are you a witness - A Yom HaShoah challenge

09/04/2021 09:20:43 AM

Apr9

Dear Congregational Family,

My grandparents on both sides (whom I never knew) were already living in the United States, where my parents were born. Not being a child or grandchild of a victim or survivor, I was nonetheless raised with a strong consciousness for remembering the Shoah.

As a young child, my father made me and my siblings know the story and the branded number of a survivor who was a member of our local synagogue. My father's idea was that one day, my family would be this man's witness to the future of humanity.

As a rabbinical student, I wrote a paper in which I proposed that Yom HaShoah be considered a statutory Fast day on the Jewish calendar. This way, the special Torah reading and additional prayers would perpetuate the memory of the Shoah on our calendar for generations to come. If our predecessors could sanctify the joys of Chanukah and Purim as well as the sadness of Tisha B'Av, why couldn't our generation sanctify the sadness of Yom HaShoah and the joy of Yom Ha'Atamaut? Ironically, in many communities, the joy of Yom Ha'Atzmaut has made it in terms of extra liturgy, exemplified by the recitation of Hallel and even a prescribed Torah and/or Haftarah reading in many communities. On Yom HaShoah, at best, the traditional memorial prayer is added and not much more.

A few decades ago, Megillat HaShoah, a six chapter fictionalized history, was composed in the style of other historical texts. Leaders of the Toronto Jewish community with scholars in Israel assembled this important document. The intention was for it to become globally recited on Yom HaShoah in the way Biblical Megillot are recited on other Festivals of the year. In reality, very few communities have picked up on it. After many years of devoting a particular night to reading Megillat HaShoah in a designated synagogue, the interest locally seems to have waned.

As the number of survivors decreases, it seems to me that my father's notion when I was a young boy is still correct. We, the descendants of survivors/victims, or we, the next generations of the Jewish people, must become witnesses. We must take ownership and become witness of someone's  story. We must become "Ke'ilu - as if" we are that victim or survivor. A number of Holocaust museums have us take on the identity of a victim or survivor experientially as we go through our visit, not knowing if our "personna" died or survived, until the end of our experience. 

At stake nowadays is not a meaningful museum experience, but a lifetime calling. If the young people of today do not become witnesses to the Shoah, how will the memories and the lessons be perpetuated for the Jewish people and the world community?

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison

Fri, 29 March 2024 19 Adar II 5784