Rabbi Howard Morrison

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

While the Jewish community has its own internal seasons for memorializing the Shoah (ie. Yom Hashoah and the date of Kristallnacht), today is designated for the entire world.

Sadly, Anti-Semitism looms large in the world through physical acts of hatred and false propaganda. The Jewish world continues to struggle in having the world at large comprehend the meaning and consequence of Jew-hatred.

While many people continue to cope with the fear and anxiety caused by Covid, we dare never apply the words Holocaust and Shoah to anything other than the atrocities perpetrated in Eastern Europe during the 1930's and 1940's 

Several years ago, I escorted a Beth Emeth trip to Poland. Our last day of a one week experience was spent at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a time we will never forget. In my safe home in Toronto, I will never complain of inclement weather here. I cannot imagine how our predecessors endured the harsh Winters over those years and the unimaginable oppression they faced, resulting in six million lost Jewish lives and a life of trauma for those who survived.

Now, it is for us to serve as witness, to testify to the truth of the horror, to do whatever we can to perpetuate the memory of the Shoah, and to combat Jew-hatred in our time.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison