How Should We Commemorate the Shoah in Our Homes?
GOLINKIN, NOAH
We Jews have been blessed with a genius for remembering. Our memory has been the source and the secret of our survival. We were commanded: "Remember the day of your coming out of Egypt all the days...
...These holidays are remembrances of events of long ago...
...In decades ahead, children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors would come to tell the story...
...Holocaust home service may emerge...
...It would be a solemn gathering of a family: lights, readings, discussions, songs, charity...
...In 1988, the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs sponsored Winokur's idea as a national project and sold nearly 50,000 yellow yahrtzeit lamps...
...We were commanded: "Remember the day of your coming out of Egypt all the days of your life...
...Tulips are the flower of Holland, and Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Bulgaria were the only countries that saved Jews during the Holocaust...
...Wear your mourning with sadness and dignity...
...The oldest child lights the candles, without a blessing...
...What do we do about food...
...However, these two holidays are observed in joy and accompanied by festive foods...
...Earlier, I compared Yom haShoah home observance to Chanukah and to the Passover seder...
...It is a mitzvah incumbent upon every human being who believes in freedom and human dignity...
...Tulips flower in April, at the time of Yom haShoah...
...Eventually, Yom haShoah may become a full fast day.* The Conservative Congregation Moriah in Haifa, led by Rabbi Robert Harris, has already adopted Yom haShoah as a fast day, as did 20 rabbinical students in the Jerusalem branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary...
...In fact, the seder as we know it was not finalized, as we learn from the Mishnah, until 1,400 years after the Exodus that it celebrates...
...they involve children, hands-on activities, special songs, stories and special foods...
...The youngest child places six yellow tulips beside the candles...
...Individual survivors would come to school to tell an assembly or each class their personal stories...
...Let it flower...
...Involve your children in the planting (and the tending) of the tulips near your home and near your synagogue...
...and by the Romans in 70 C.E...
...in schools and universities...
...Deuteronomy 25:17-18) And now: Remember what Hitler did to us in our day...
...NOAM COLINKIN public forum, is the indispensable medium...
...We must remember the crimes of evil minds that tried to obliterate us from the earth, and the crimes of silence of those who allowed it to happen...
...Both Passover and Chanukah are home observances...
...Memories and commemorations are selective...
...Commemorating the Holocaust primarily at public events, as is done today, is good but insufficient...
...You could sing songs of the Russian-Jewish refuseniks...
...Remembering the Holocaust is a mitzvah incumbent not only upon the survivors of the death camps and their offspring, but upon every Jew in America and everywhere, today and for all tomorrows...
...Deuteronomy 16:3) Remember the destruction of Jerusalem...
...Try to attend one of the public memorials in the synagogue, in the Jewish community or in the general community...
...The meditation is followed by a moment of silence...
...The Yom Kippur fast does just that...
...Passover is a family feast that makes use of numerous symbols like the shank bone, matzah, maror, charosel, the afikomen, the opening of the door for Elijah, and a variety of songs...
...An Orthodox rabbi, Robert Sternberg, director of the St...
...Tell your non-Jewish neighbors and friends at work about the ribbon, the tulips, your home observance and the public functions of the day...
...Remember the Six Million...
...Number 4, Summer 1984...
...Let it be an eternal blessing...
...Let us plant early-blooming as well as late-blooming tulips, since the 27th of Nisan may occur between April 7 and May 6 in different years...
...A long time after the Maccabean victory, there were some people who lit only a single candle every night of Chanukah (see Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b...
...The family might reflect upon the memorabilia of the shtetl and, where appropriate, the European roots of the family...
...In the window of every Jewish home let us display six yellow tulips, symbolizing the Six Million...
...We must make Yom haShoah a holy day commemorated in every Jewish home throughout the world...
...The Bible, however, speaks only of the paschal sacrifice, matzah, maror and the answering of a child's questions...
...These events are commemorated on Tisha b'Av—the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, when, on the same date, the First 30 MOMENT«JUNE 1989 and Second Temples were destroyed...
...A number of commemorative events were held in and around state executive mansions and city halls...
...The family should not watch entertainment programs on television or go to the movies...
...During the three days preceding Yom haShoah, let the children gather memorabilia and family photographs...
...Candlelighting has a deep impact in Jewish experience...
...I recommend that the family gathering described above take place around the dining room table, with no meal on the table, not a particle of food...
...From generation to generation, they will tell the story...
...other elements may be added...
...If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, May my right hand forget its cunning...
...The parents ask the children to retell the stories they heard in school that afternoon...
...Yellow tulips in every Jewish home will reach all Jews and gentiles, all ages and generations...
...I believe that just as a meal brings the family together, so too would a "non-meal" bring the family together...
...Memory and commemoration are not automatic...
...Perhaps, in time, a haggadah, or standard reading, for Yom haShoah will develop...
...It is time to bring the memory of the Holocaust into our homes...
...Depending on the age of the child, and the world situation at the time, you may branch out the discussion into the state of anti-Semitism in the United States and elsewhere and the problems of Jews in lands of oppression such as Ethiopia or the Soviet Union...
...For example: • The family goes to synagogue for a brief evening service that includes a collective recitation of kaddish and, if possible, a blowing of the shofar...
...In 1985, Joe Winokur of Peabody, Massachu* See Rabbi David Golinkin...
...Winokur's father died in the Holocaust and the project was in his memory...
...Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles or any other major organization involved in commemorating the Holocaust...
...On the evening of Yom haShoah each family would observe the solemnity of the event...
...It can best be done for children and with children...
...The rest evolved later, including the entire text of the traditional haggadah...
...The family pledges to contribute S18 [Choi) to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, the U.S...
...Most Holocaust victims left no immediate living relatives to mourn for them...
...Chanukah involves lights...
...But Jews have remembered the destruction of Jerusalem (by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E...
...An impressive event is held annually in Washington, D.C., attended by the president, members of the cabinet, leading senators, members of Congress ,and foreign ambassadors...
...We also answer a child's questions (the Malt Nishlanah—the four questions...
...Commemoration of Yom haShoah in the home and among young people is increasing year by year...
...UnKersity of Maryland, 1979...
...Preparations significantly enhance the impact of an observance...
...Yom haShoah is profoundly sad and solemn...
...The day would be an ordinary day of work, but Jews would wear a black ribbon as a symbol of personal mourning...
...But all of the views and customs started from one assumption: The Chanukah victory must be remembered by the lighting of candles...
...Some of our popular holidays like Chanukah and Passover suggest the elements of a successful observance...
...We are their orphans...
...A people who remembers will live...
...They would also be shown the titles of books on the Holocaust written for children...
...It begins with the lighting of six candles...
...Remember the courage of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters...
...At some point, a ritual will develop that will last a thousand years and beyond...
...More than a million people in the United States participated in the 1988 Days of Remembrance (a week-long observance centered around Yom haShoah) either in national, state or city ceremonies...
...In Israel, all movie theaters are closed and TV entertainment programs are suspended on Yom haShoah...
...Yom haShoah: A Program foi Observance," Comervalive Judaism, Volume 37...
...Indicate to your children your deep interest and contribution of time, energy and money toward the rescue of oppressed Jewish communities...
...From country to country, they will bring the message: There is goodness in every one of you...
...The mother and father recite an appropriate meditation in their own words...
...Adults participate in these events, while most children do not...
...Governors of all 50 states and nearly 300 city mayors issued special proclamations on Yom haShoah...
...On that day, the children would learn to sing "Ani Maamin" ("I Believe"), an assertion of faith in the future, the "Song of the Partisans," and other songs of resistance...
...For a memory to be transmitted "from generation to generation," for a tradition to be handed down for a hundred years, indeed for a thousand years, the home, rather than the HOW SHOULD WE COMMEM0RATE THE SHOAH IN OUR HOMES...
...They would become familiar with poems written by or about the children of the camps and ghettos...
...Perhaps names could be recorded now and passed down through the generations...
...The lesson of the Holocaust is that people, and nations as well, are capable of great evil, but also of great good...
...Eventually, a uniform haggadah-Wke...
...Think of the preparations for Shabbat and Passover...
...moving and memorable, year after year...
...Parents should encourage children's questions and answers about the Holocaust and about the heroic deeds of the righteous gentiles who tried to save Jews...
...in libraries, churches and synagogues...
...The family sings together the songs the children learned in school...
...They are a product of a will and a determination to remember...
...As part of the Yom haShoah commemoration, yellow tulips should be planted in front of every Jewish home, synagogue and organization...
...we might do the same with photos...
...Psalm 137:5-6) "Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey . . . when you were helpless and weak...
...It cannot be done for adults only...
...Unlike Chanukah, Passover is a holy day prescribed in the Bible...
...The program of the vigil consists of reading aloud the names of victims of the Holocaust from a specially compiled book, A Memorial of jVames.* Twenty thousand names are read during the vigil by several hundred readers...
...The morning, the afternoon and the following evening would have their own activities...
...setts, distributed 1,200 yellowyahrtzeit lamps (memorial candles) to commemorate the Holocaust...
...It would be different...
...i Chanukah did not start out all at once in the days of the Maccabees with the lighting of one candle the first night, two candles the second night, etc...
...Our current observance was propounded by the school of Hillel, and was ultimately accepted by everyone...
...But not all its customs and observances are detailed there...
...They discuss the message of the tulips and read out loud a moving story from Holocaust literature...
...we must also remember the heroism of the righteous who came to our aid...
...Yet we experience them with freshness year after year...
...or to remember the destruction of any other significant seat of civilization...
...There were others—the school of Shammai—who lit eight candles on the first night, seven candles on the second night and ended up with one candle on the eighth night...
...The rest of the evening is marked by a solemn family gathering at home...
...It is a 24-hour vigil—in the open—in the middle of the campus...
...In 1978, Rabbi Robert Saks, director, and Paul Ruffer, assistant director, University of Maryland Hillel, initiated an observance that is being copied on many college campuses...
...A torn black ribbon is usually worn during the shiva (mourning) period as an expression of personal loss...
...Each reader reads names for ten minutes...
...In the course of time, things will evolve and change...
...These family photographs should be pictures of relatives who were left behind or lost in the Holocaust, if these are available...
...Some people participate in these events, but most people do not...
...As the names are read over a microphone, another student reads Psalms (in English or Hebrew) in the background...
...Let my tongue cleave to my palate If I remember thee not...
...Here are some suggestions: • The time for planting tulips is in the fall...
...The family sings together "Ani Maamin...
...a sacred moment...
...Passover also involves questions and answers...
...a time of dedication, of new commitments...
...Let us begin the process in the home, with the participation of the children—the link in the "•chain of memory and tradition...
...They are a symbol of renewal and rebirth...
...A Alemorial of.\ames was funded by ihc Harold Greenstein Memorial Fund of Baltimore and published by the B'nai B'rilh Hillel-Federation Jewish Student Center...
...recorded or written oral histories might be used...
...No one was commanded, "Remember the destruction of Rome" (in 476 C.E...
...Remember the courage of the Righteous Gentiles...
...Yellow gives pride to the yellow star that the Nazis forced Jews to wear...
...To commemorate the Holocaust, we should combine these elements in a new way...
...Each child might pledge $1.80, or multiples thereof, depending on the age of the child...
...On the day preceding Yom haShoah, let Jewish afternoon schools and day schools devote the entire school day to preparation for Yom haShoah...
...Louis Center for Holocaust Studies, suggests a community effort to encourage individuals to take upon themselves the obligation of a voluntary fast on Yom haShoah...
Vol. 14 • June 1989 • No. 4
