Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day

 "It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere." - Primo Levi, 1986 The Drowned and the Saved 

Never Forget 

Today, we observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.#YomHashoah #HolocaustRemembranceDay pic.twitter.com/ouMeXatgrr

— Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation (@ABMFusa) May 5, 2024

We must never forget what happened and remain vigilant now and in the future to battle against the mass destruction of innocent human beings.  News today with polls showing that new generations are ignorant of the Holocaust is deeply troubling. As Santayana observed, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. This is why we remember and say never again.  

The rising tide of Jewish hatred fed by Iran, Cuba, and other bad actors has exploded across university campuses across the world.

Never Again is Now

Unfortunately the international community has failed more than once since 1945 to prevent another mass slaughter. Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge murdered between one fourth and one third of its population between 1975 and 1979, civil libertarian Nat Hentoff pointed to another genocide that could have been stopped in Rwanda in 1994, and we witnessed another in Syria in 2016 where religious minorities, including Christians, and Palestinian refugees were massacred. However, because the Assad regime is backed by Havana, and Tehran progressives on university campuses largely ignored these crimes against humanity.  

Today it is also important to remember that antisemitism is on the rise world wide, emboldened to gather in crowds chanting “F**k the Jews” "Where’s the Jews?" less than 48 hours after 1,200 innocent human beings were massacred in Israel on October 7, 2023. People of the Jewish faith need our solidarity and support in confronting this rising hatred and intolerance to ensure that what Nazi Germany did never be repeated.