This Friday, January 27, or International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is not a Jewish commemoration of the Nazi Holocaust, or, as we say in Hebrew, the Shoah, which means catastrophe. January 27 is also not the US day of acknowledgement of the Shoah. But January 27 is the day on which in 1945 the Red Amy of Russia liberated the forced labor prison and death camp known as Auschwitz. It is the day that UN resolution 60/7 in 2005 established as International Holocaust Remembrance Day after asked to by the ambassador of the State of Israel.
Yet most Jewish communities around the world acknowledge a day for remembrance according to the our calendar on the 27th of Nisan, 13 days after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising when in 1943 over 700 imprisoned Jews began the 24 day resistance to Nazi deportation in what has been called "the first significant urban revolt against German occupation in Europe." The prisoners chose the date as it was the eve of the Jewish festival of liberation - Passover - calling on their ancestral tradition to rise up to defy persecution.
They did not succeed in defeating the Nazis that day. They did not succeed in freeing themselves and their families from the ghetto, nor even escaping death. They did succeed, though, in raising their spirits and the spirits of their siblings in resistance, not only those who found out about their acts 80 years ago, but all those who have heard of them since and will continue to do so.
You see, a Jewish acknowledgement of the Nazi holocaust not only lays respect and honors those killed, not only serves as a recommitment to ending oppression for anyone anywhere, but also and always serves as a celebration of those who resisted and fought back, even against certain fatal consequence.
Today and always, let us remember that the Nazi Holocaust was not only a targeted genocide of Jews everywhere, but also a racial ideology that promoted supremacy over all who were different. It does us all a disservice to ignore or forget all whom experienced persecution, attempted genocide and racially, ableist, and homophobic motivated experimentation, imprisonment, propaganda, and murder: the mentally and physically disabled, the queer, the Roma, the Sinti, the Slavic, the African; the trade unionist, the communist, the social democrat; the Jehovah's witness, and more.
We must remember and understand that antisemitism stems from the same racial pseudo science that targets BIPOC and is doubly edged for our Black and Indigenous Jews and Jews of Color and for all Jews who have multiple marginalized identities. We must remember and understand that antisemitism is not just Jew hatred, but a mechanism used to keep the powerful in power, the rich rich, and the supremacist supreme.
Let us now believe that we must remain divided in order to win our protection. Let us resist any fight against antisemitism that sets anyone else for harm. Please take action against the codification of the IHRA definition against antisemitism while continuing to call it out, fight against it, and remain steadfast. If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If we are only for ourselves, who are we, and if not now, when? (Hillel)
Yet most Jewish communities around the world acknowledge a day for remembrance according to the our calendar on the 27th of Nisan, 13 days after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising when in 1943 over 700 imprisoned Jews began the 24 day resistance to Nazi deportation in what has been called "the first significant urban revolt against German occupation in Europe." The prisoners chose the date as it was the eve of the Jewish festival of liberation - Passover - calling on their ancestral tradition to rise up to defy persecution.
They did not succeed in defeating the Nazis that day. They did not succeed in freeing themselves and their families from the ghetto, nor even escaping death. They did succeed, though, in raising their spirits and the spirits of their siblings in resistance, not only those who found out about their acts 80 years ago, but all those who have heard of them since and will continue to do so.
You see, a Jewish acknowledgement of the Nazi holocaust not only lays respect and honors those killed, not only serves as a recommitment to ending oppression for anyone anywhere, but also and always serves as a celebration of those who resisted and fought back, even against certain fatal consequence.
Today and always, let us remember that the Nazi Holocaust was not only a targeted genocide of Jews everywhere, but also a racial ideology that promoted supremacy over all who were different. It does us all a disservice to ignore or forget all whom experienced persecution, attempted genocide and racially, ableist, and homophobic motivated experimentation, imprisonment, propaganda, and murder: the mentally and physically disabled, the queer, the Roma, the Sinti, the Slavic, the African; the trade unionist, the communist, the social democrat; the Jehovah's witness, and more.
We must remember and understand that antisemitism stems from the same racial pseudo science that targets BIPOC and is doubly edged for our Black and Indigenous Jews and Jews of Color and for all Jews who have multiple marginalized identities. We must remember and understand that antisemitism is not just Jew hatred, but a mechanism used to keep the powerful in power, the rich rich, and the supremacist supreme.
Let us now believe that we must remain divided in order to win our protection. Let us resist any fight against antisemitism that sets anyone else for harm. Please take action against the codification of the IHRA definition against antisemitism while continuing to call it out, fight against it, and remain steadfast. If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If we are only for ourselves, who are we, and if not now, when? (Hillel)
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