Dear Friends,
I’ve been asked, how long will we be remembering and commemorating 10/7? My answer is forever.
Some of you may have been at the Annual Meeting. I spoke about my first trip to Israel and my experience seeing the Western Wall.
As you can imagine that trip was full of lots of firsts for me.
Any trip to Israel isn’t complete without a visit to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. I remember thinking and questioning, how could 6 million of our people be marched into the ovens and gassed? When that trip was winding down, one of my bus mates told us her story. She was from a small town in Louisiana, and she had converted to Judaism.
When we went into Yad Vashem, we all looked at the pictures on the wall. As you may know, those pictures are bigger than life. My bus mate explained that while we were all looking at the pictures, wondering if any of the victims were our relatives, she was looking at the Nazi soldiers, wondering if any of them were her relatives. She finished her story with a stern warning. She told us those who wished to harm us were out there, waiting to do it again. So, we live by the statement, “Never Again” — not in fear, but with great resolve.
Never Again will we march into a gas chamber and Never Again will we allow Hamas into our Kibbutz’s or on our land.
I want to thank Lee Yaron, our guest of honor at the Federation’s October 7th Commemoration event on Saturday, for bringing us the stories that we vow to never forget. I also want to thank Dr. Ilana Horwitz, the event’s moderator, for all she has done to teach us what it means to be Jewish, preserving the history and traditions our people have never forgotten, regardless of tragedy.
Saturday’s commemoration was not easy, but necessary, to make sure we NEVER FORGET.
As we celebrate the news of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, we acknowledge the pain of loss that remains, vowing to carry with us always those lives lost.
And yet we look ahead to the long-awaited promise of healing, renewal, and hope.
Am Yisrael Chai!