Mem Moment | Our Communal Call to Action
Yom HaShoah “Holocaust Remembrance Day”
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is an interesting day. We are somber for all that was lost: pieces of our culture, our people, our places, our community. After meeting Elie Wiesel some years back, I’m always struck by the trauma of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is something that I think even with visiting the museums and memorials, you can’t understand. 6 million is hard to visualize and understand fully, such a massive loss; we will never know the extent of what we are missing.
I will always remember what a Holocaust survivor said at a Base Brooklyn gathering. She said, “We have gotten too comfortable in America.” I think about her saying this often. Jews are a nomadic people. We carry with us our traditions and culture, and I wonder what comfortability means to us, and the idea of always being aware. It’s sometimes joked about, but how many Jews know where their passports are at all times? These casual ideas play into pieces of our identity shaped from trauma and help us to understand how this can never happen again.
With the framing of the Holocaust in mind, what is our call to action in showing up for people?