The Jewish calendar places Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — between Passover and Yom Ha’Atzma’ut — Israel Independence Day. We go from freedom to independence to mourning. The calendrical design — thanks to the Knesset — was insensitive to the special, redemptive quality of the month of Passover, but to an extent we’re stuck with it.
Yom Hashoah commemorations take place all over the world, and Denver is no exception, with events planned by survivors and their children, the ADL and HEA.
The complexion of these commemorations is changing each year as the population of Holocaust survivors continues to decline. The number of Holocaust survivors in the Denver area was recently said be to 125, a mere fraction of the census even 10 years ago. It is now up to us to represent those who lived through the event in telling the world — and ourselves — what happened. Given the post-Holocaust genocides, we need to do a much better job.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
