On This Day of Yom Hashoa

     Today is Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Sixty-nine years ago, Adolf Hitler came to power and began a process that would end twelve years later and millions of people dead. On this day, it is extremely common to hear the phrase, "Never forget" implying that we should not forget the six million people who died in the concentration camps. By never forgetting the six million people that died in the concentration camps we seem to be forgetting everyone else. We forget about the Jews who were killed in Krystal Night. We forget about the Jews who were killed in random acts of violence. We forget about the Jews who died in the ghettos. We forget about the Jews who died resisting the Nazis on their own. We forget about the Jews who died in the labor camps. We forget about the non-Jews who died because they hid Jews. We forget about the soldiers of the Allied forces who fought to defeat Hitler. And we forget about the millions of people who didn't die in the Holocaust. We forget to remember that hundreds of thousands if not millions of people survived and we forget to commemorate those who are courageous enough to tell their stories for the sole purpose that we do not forget. 

     Today is about so much more than just not forgetting. Not forgetting seems so passive to me. Instead we must be active. We must not just "not forget," but we must actively remember. We must remember all those who were lost, sacrificed, and saved. We must remember what their sacrifice meant to millions of Jews across the Diaspora and to the Jews of today. 

     We must remember that we have Israel. There are currently over fifty countries in which the majority of the population is Muslim, half of which have Islam as their official state religion. There are over 100 countries in which the majority of the population is Christian. There are currently sixteen countries in which the official religion of the state is Christianity. There is but ONE country in which Jews make up the majority. That country is Israel. Jews who escaped Europe after Hitler had come to power and even during the time of the Holocaust were on numerous occasions refused to be let into the various countries including our own. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost because there was no Jewish state. That has changed.

     Israel exists as a haven for Jews. Israel exists as a place where Jews can be Jews without second looks. Israel does not even care if you are or your mother or your mother's mother was Jewish. Even if it was your father's father who was Jewish, you are a Jew who has the right to become an Israeli citizen. Why? Because the Nazis would have killed you. Israel exists as a result of the Holocaust and Israel will continue to accept you as a Jew even if you do not even believe Israel should exist. Israel simply does not care. If you are a Jew, then you deserve to not be persecuted elsewhere. That is your right.

     Today I saw something that I will never forget and probably will not see again in my lifetime. I was standing outside the university and at exactly 10am, a siren went off. Cars pulled over, people got out of their cars, people  stopped walking and talking. People simply stood in humility with their hands and feet together and their heads down in remembrance of those who were lost in the Holocaust. For two minutes, an entire nation was unified in silence. It did not matter where you came from, what your political party affiliations were, or how religious you were. All that mattered was that you were a Jew and those who died seventy years ago died because they were Jews too. At that moment I remembered two things. I remembered Barrack 52 in Majdanek and the bright red heals and remembered how they felt when I touched them and the chill that I got when I did so. And I remembered why I fight for Israel and will stand up against anyone who wishes its downfall or does not support it as they should. I don't care what your stances are on anything. I don't care about what you think about the settlements or Israel's military force or the refugee camps or how it handles Gaza or the West Bank. If you are a Jew, you should support the State of Israel and its defense and its survival. You don't have to agree with everything each specific administration does while in power, but you should and need to protect the land of Israel from all detractors no matter what you think about each individual issue. You know why I don't care? Because they wouldn't have cared. The Nazis wouldn't have cared if you were a self-hating Jew who believed in everything the Nazis said. If you were a Jew, you died. Simple as that. 

     On this day, we do not just "not forget." We remember so that we make sure that it never happens again. On this day we remember that it is because of the existence of the State of Israel that it will never happen again for if someone tries to exterminate the Jewish people like Hitler tried and even if every country rejects countless Jews, there will always be one country that will let us in regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, or nationality. And that one country will be the State of Israel. You better believe I'll fight for that with every last breath and you better believe that you should as well.

For two minutes, a country is united in silence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGPbA9wowRk