Yom HaShoah 05/06/24

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a surreal experience in Israel. In addition to various ceremonies, at 10 am, they blast a two minute country-wide alarm. Time stops. All movement pauses. The cars on the freeway pull over and people step out to bow their heads. People exit their offices to collectively reflect on our immeasurable loss. Until recently, I had mistakenly thought that the Jewish population had finally re-emerged from its WWII losses. Sadly, that is not the case. At 15.7 million, today’s Jews still number less than those alive in 1939. Judaism is the smallest of the major world religions, having just .2% of the world's population as adherents. It’s almost comical: we’re so small, we don’t even make the Wiki bar chart, but Ethnic Religions, African Traditional Religions, Secular/Atheist/Agnostic, and Spiritism all do. We literally don’t rank. 

Balance that with our #1 ranking on the hate list. In April, the ADL reported that there is now one antisemitic incident every hour, making 2024 the highest year since recording began in 1979. This is higher than the previous three years combined. Wait for the kicker: these numbers do not include data since the campus crisis kicked off.  

As I ponder our current state of affairs (youth indoctrination sends me into a particular spiral), the questions feel overwhelming. When did consequences for breaking the law become optional? When do we, as a country and as individuals, start fighting back economically? Where the hell am I going to send my kids to college? I have tons of questions, but these aren’t the right ones. The real question isn’t about short term levers or long term priorities. It’s much more existential. 

People often ask: “Where was G-d during the Holocaust?” The real question is “where was Humanity during this time?” G-d never promised to intervene and socially engineer our lives, and He certainly never said He’d stop us from harming one another. Instead, He gave us the 10 Commandments as a moral code, which taught us how to stop ourselves. The real question, which is painful to ask, is not “where was Gd when we called to Him?” but “Where were we, when He called to us?” I’m pretty sure he’s ringing and it’s time to answer.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Kelly