“The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish People — the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe — was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of [the Jewish people’s] homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz Yisrael [the land of Israel] the Jewish state, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of the nations.”
So states Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
The Holocaust is one of the two most dramatic and influential events that happened to our people in the last century. It is present in every family, every community, every day. Our collective memory remembers the Holocaust in every segment of our lives.
Still, there is one day in the year when we stop everything and dedicate every moment commemorating it. But which day should it be? World War II is filled with significant events and important dates — how can we choose one day that will capture all of that?
When the government of Israel debated which date it should be, the answer came fairly quickly. The approach was to choose a date that will symbolize the heroism of the Jewish people, their struggle and their survival during the horror.
The initial thought was to mark the day when the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began, April 19, 1943. The only obstacle was that day was the Hebrew date of the first night of Passover, a night when all Jewish families gather in the celebration of the seder and of our liberation from Egypt.
Finally the decision was made to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day on Nissan 27 — six days after the end of Passover, and a week before Israel’s Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers.
From religious perspective, that day is part of the counting of the Omer, days of mourning for the Jewish people. From national perspective, the day is marked eight days before Israel’s Independence Day, which emphasizes the transition of our people from Shoah le’tkuma — from Holocaust to revival.
And this revival, this independent Jewish sovereignty, is the second most dramatic event that happened to us. After 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people are, and never will be, refugees or homeless. No matter what happens in the world, there is a place where a Jewish person can always go to and be free.
These days from Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) through Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) to Independence Day (Yom Ha’Atzmaut) have a sense of holiness in them when you are in Israel.
These are days of reconciliation, of “In Between.” Between the generation which lost their grandparents, to the generation that fears for its children. Between the reminders for why we must have a state, to the reminder of what is the price of a state.
Between the silences of Yom HaShoah, which mean that we are not capable of understanding, no way to comprehend, to the silence of Yom HaZikaron which means that we do understand the meaning of loss, to fireworks and celebrations at the city square, between memory and rebirth.
These Yamim summarize the story of our people in modern times.
Michal Makov-Peled is co-emissary from Israel to Milwaukee and co-director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, along with her husband Ro’ee Peled, and is Israel Campus Fellow (see March 2014 issue).
See the announcement of the Milwaukee Jewish community’s coming observances of Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut under Events on this page.
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