Yom Hashoah : Holocaust Remembrance Day 2017

YOM HASHOAH. Israel and her friends all over the world are marking Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the 6 million Jews systematically killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. It is one of the most melancholy days on Israel's calendar. Cafes and other places of entertainment shut down while TV and radio stations broadcast documentaries about the Holocaust from Sunday evening until commemorations end at sundown the next day. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials attended the main ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. On Monday morning, Israel mostly came to a two-minute standstill to remember the dead when sirens wail prompted people to stop in their tracks and motorists to pull over and stand still outside their vehicles with their heads bowed in silence. • • • TRUMP ADDRESSES THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS. President Trump delivered an address to the World Jewish Congress. Here is the text of his speech : "I am deeply honored to speak with you tonight, as the World Jewish Congress gathers in New York City with the leaders from across the world. First, I want to thank Ronald Lauder, not only for his many years of friendship - and he truly has been my good friend, he even predicted early that I was going to win the presidency - but also for his leadership of this organization. He has done a fantastic job. Today we are reminded of this organization’s long and heroic history fighting for the Jewish people. Your brave leaders warned the world of the planned atrocities that sought to extinguish an entire people. On Yom HaShoah, we look back at the darkest chapter of human history. We mourn, we remember, we pray, and we pledge : Never again. I say it, never again. The mind cannot fathom the pain, the horror, and the loss. Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazi genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear. On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we tell the stories of the fathers, mothers and children, whose lives were extinguished and whose love was torn from this earth. We also tell the stories of courage in the face of death, humanity in the face of barbarity, and the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people. Today, only decades removed from the Holocaust, we see a great nation risen from the desert and we see a proud Star of David waving above the State of Israel. That star is a symbol of Jewish perseverance. It’s a monument to unyielding strength. We recall the famous words attributed to Theodor Herzl : 'If you will, it is no dream. If you will it, it is no dream.' Jews across the world have proved the truth of these words day after day. In the memory of those who were lost, we renew our commitment and our determination not to disregard the warnings of our own times. We must stamp out prejudice and anti-Semitism everywhere it is found. We must defeat terrorism, and we must not ignore the threats of a regime that talks openly of Israel’s destruction. We cannot let that ever even be thought of. To all of you tonight, who have come from around the world, let it be known, America stands strong with the State of Israel. The meaning of that state for so many is captured by the words of a German Jewish musician. Escaping Germany before 1937, he settled in the ancient land of Israel. Sometime later, he received a visit from a British official, who found him living in a hut, with only his piano for company. The official recognized the musician and said : This must be a terrible change for you. The musician looked back at him and replied : It is a change - from hell to heaven. Many of you here today helped fulfill the same dream, the dream of Israel for millions, a dream that burned in the hearts of oppressed and fallen and which now draws the breath of life from a joyous people each and every day. Thank you for your leadership, for your service, and for your vision of a world that is more free, just and peaceful place for all of God’s people. Thank you and God bless you all." • You can find the video version of the speech at < http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.785272 > • • • EXODUS. Perhaps because I was a teenager when the book Exodus by Leon Uris appeared in the United States, and thanks to my mother I was allowed to read it, I always associate the Holocaust with the word "Exodus" -- the Exodus of the Jews from Europe and all over the world to Israel after World War II, to a place where they would be safe and have a homeland at last. Leon Uris is criticized for having written a purely fictional account of an Israel that never existed and recreating Jews to make Americans identify with their courage and determination as freedom fighters -- but he did it immensely better than any book before or after, and it indelibly marked America. Yet, I am also a Christian, and the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt to their Promised Land thousands of years before America existed -- with the wonderful story in Exodus 3, taught to every Christian child -- is imbedded in my soul. The Covenant made by God that He would be the God of Israel forever is taught to Christian children as the Jewish Covenant that is shared by Christians because of their belief in the one God and His Ten Commandments. As children we were awed by the eternity-arching Omnipotence of God's own description of Himself when He spoke to Moses : "I Am Who I Am." • So, as we remember the horror of the Holocaust and mourn the Jewish dead who suffered unimaginably under the Nazis, I would like to share the eternally promising story of the Covenant, because that is when the Jewish people were chosen and received their strength to survive, even against Unspeakable Evil. • Exodus 3:3-22 : "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt : And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty. But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians." (King James Version) • Pray for the Holocaust Dead. • Remember.