Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day - 27 Nisan
The Names Database is an international undertaking led by
Yad Vashem, from Jerusalem. It is the attempt to reconstruct the names and life
stories of all the Jews who perished in the Shoah. It is the final sign of
respect we can show them. We estimate that the number of Jews commemorated in
the database to date is close to three million. The database is comprised of
Pages of Testimony, historical documentation and other sources.
Millions of names that appear in historical documents have
not yet been identified nor recorded in the database; many additional names
still linger in the memories of survivors or in the lore of their families.
Building the database is a work in progress. With the Database online, we are
urging Jewish families around the world to check the database for the names of
Shoah victims that they know, and to submit unrecorded names via the site. This
is a race against time – we must redeem as many names as possible before the
generation that remembers them is no longer with us.
Join us and help ensure that every victim of the Shoah has a
place in our collective memory.
By CYNTHIA WROCLAWSKI
Over seven million people worldwide have visited the site of
the online Database (www.yadvashem.org
)
where visitors can search for names of family or friends who were murdered in
the Holocaust, and then either check details already given or submit new Pages
of Testimony. Over 150,000 additional names and biographical details have been
added to the Database in the past year.
Reprinted with permission from Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish
Responsibility April 2006 (www.shma.com).
According to Rabbi Steven M. Brown, Dean of the William
Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and Director of the Melton
Research Center for Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the
mitzvot of bikkur holim (visiting the sick), nihum avelim
(comforting the mourner), tzedakah, tikkun olam are all
constellations of actions and beliefs designed to cope with evil in the world.
Reprinted with permission from Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish
Responsibility April 2006 (www.shma.com).
Ilana Sichel, Editor of New Voices Magazine, the
flagship publication of the Jewish Student Press Service, speculates that had
the annual Yom HaShoah assembly at her suburban Jewish day school been combined
with education about the Rwandan genocide, or about systemic discrimination in
the U.S., or about the Israeli occupation, perhaps she and other students would
have understood that their privilege, affluence, and security as American Jews
could enable their work for social justice.
Reprinted with permission from Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish
Responsibility April 2006 (www.shma.com).
Five prominent Jewish thinkers discuss the relationship
between Holocaust education, responsibility to society, and tikkun olam.
Wiley Miller has a poignant strip about a holocaust survivor
explaining his tattoo to a young child.
