Synagogues across Europe illuminated to mark 70th anniversary.
By ETGAR LEFKOVITSKristallnacht 224.88(photo credit: AP)
More than 150 Jewish communities across Europe kept the lights of their local synagogues on overnight Sunday, as the Jewish world marked the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht - the Night of the Broken Glass.
The notorious 1938 Nazi pogrom was the first in a series of violent riots that effectively began Nazi Germany's attempt to destroy European Jewry.
During November 9-10, 1938, hundreds of synagogues and Jewish homes were burned down, tens of thousands of Jews were arrested and deported to concentration camps, and over 90 Jews were murdered.
The World Zionist Organization initiative, calling on rabbis and community leaders turn on all the lights in their synagogues - as well as to light candles and torches - was meant to commemorate the pogrom in a highly symbolic way, said WZO official Zvika Klein.
"The Nazis' objective was to darken Israel's eyes and turn off 'the light of the world,' the light of the Torah and prayer that shone out of synagogues and midrashot [centers for Jewish learning]," read a joint message published by Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog and chief rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar.
"As such we call on all of the people of Israel, in the State of Israel and in the Diaspora, to light candles and leave lights on in synagogues and midrashot in order to remember and to remind future generations never to forget the cruelty and evil actions that befell us," the statement read.
The idea to illuminate synagogues on the memorial date was the brainchild of Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman. who heads the Department of Religious Affairs and Diaspora at the WZO.
The notorious riot, which got its name from the shattered window panes that covered German streets, was marked here Sunday by the government and by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial with a series of commemorative events.
"This phenomenon of a population being led through the streets, beaten and humiliated, while the German public looked on as if it were a given, as if it was an inseparable part of the daily routine that needed to characterize their country, is both unforgivable and unforgettable, and we will never forgive or forget," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
"The consolation that we have is that in the historic perspective of time is that we are building the ability and the strength so that such a phenomenon never recur," he said.
"The Jewish answer to Kristallnacht and the Holocaust is the State of Israel, a Jewish state, Zionist, flourishing, strong and sure of itself," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.
A new on-line exhibition on the Yad Vashem Web site features testimonies, images, historical information, and Pages of Testimony containing the names and stories of some of the Jews who were murdered over Kristallnacht.
Meanwhile, a roundtable discussion entitled "Lessons learned? Holocaust remembrance and combating anti-Semitism in 2008" will take place Monday in Vienna.
The Mishkenot Sha'ananim international guesthouse in Jerusalem is also holding 12 days of events commemorating Kristallnacht.
Its program got under way Sunday evening with a ceremony attended by Herzog, as well as by the German and Austrian ambassadors to Israel.
"One must respond to any expression of anti-Semitism even if it veiled behind an ostensibly political and anti-Israeli stance," Herzog said.
"This is the obligation of an enlightened world, which believes in the miracle of tolerance, reconciliation and unity in the family of nations. This is the obligation of humanity."
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