We study Jewish history. We learn how our Jewish nation has endured and at times even thrived throughout the centuries, despite antisemitism and persecution. Throughout history, as early as the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 597 BCE to today, the Jews have faced periods of success and peak periods of antisemitism. Periods of relative ease were followed by increased persecution and even killing.
In the previous century, Nazi Germany, during the Holocaust, took antisemitism to new levels with the most horrific persecution of all time, implementing industrial methods, including death and extermination camps, for the full-scale torture and murder of six million Jews.
History repeats itself
Fast forward to the Jew-hatred since October 7, 2023. Israel and the Jewish nation at large experienced a horrifying massacre of torturing, raping, killing, and kidnapping Jewish babies, toddlers, children, women, and men, living in Israel by the Gaza border in hope of peace. Instead of an outpour of sympathy toward Jews and the State of Israel, the ugly face of antisemitism showed up again, openly, blatantly, rampantly, and globally.
Only this time the catchphrase used and accepted is disguised as “anti-Zionism." It seems that when the term antisemitism is replaced by anti-Zionism, in a twisted manner, legitimacy is achieved globally. Open intimidation of Jews living all over the world has become accepted and even at times, a righteous sport. Even in America, the “Land of the Free,” and especially in New York, with the largest population of Jews living outside of Israel, antisemitism/anti-Zionism has become the new norm, having gained social legitimacy.
When New York Jews question themselves about the impact of wearing a kippah or a Star of David necklace publicly, we understand that antisemitism is alive. Australian Jews are concerned about attending a Hanukkah celebration. From overt physical attacks and vandalism to online hate speech and political campaigns against Jews, the number of incidents reported worldwide is rising.
As a hopeful nation, we wish for antisemitism to disappear and never return. Until then, let us remember and commemorate our history to ensure that the major lesson of the Holocaust, “Never Again,” is remembered in each generation.
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one relatively simple way to remember, is with a visit to Yad Vashem, or even have “Yad Vashem visit you,” by lighting an Our Six Million personal memorial candle and bringing the memory of one of the Jews who perished to your home.
Our Six Million and Yad Vashem have partnered in this initiative to return the identity stolen from Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, for example, by remembering her as an individual, full of life and positivity, who used her skills as an educator, artist, and spiritual mother to help children, otherwise referred to as her students, while imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
By using art therapy with the children, Friedl succeeded in freeing them, at least in their imagination, from the misery and horror that surrounded them, transporting them to a different world. She painted flowers on windows and didn’t make the children draw Terezin.
One child survivor expressed that Friedl’s goal was to liberate the children from their fears. By lighting a candle specifically in memory of Friedl, you will both restore her identity as an individual who had a life until it was stolen from her.
By passing her memory as one of the six million individuals who perished to the next generation, we will also ensure that we all clearly understand what antisemitism can lead to. This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, fight antisemitism within your home with your family and friends: Light. Remember. Never again.
The writer is the founder Our Six Million.