Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
On this day, we remember the loss of 6 million of our people. We remember this loss that so profoundly defines our past, our present and our future.
Especially today, and every Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we resolve to remember this loss so that we may educate every future generation about this tragic chapter in our history.
We remember these darkest days of the Jewish people. We remember how faith and hope led to the creation of the Jewish homeland. We remember the paramount importance of protecting and defending Israel's existence. We resolve to never forget and to always proclaim "Never Again."
Today marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, which in Hebrew is called "Yom HaShoah" and comes from our verse in Zephaniah describing the devastating destruction of Jerusalem. Yom HaShoah was established by the Knesset and coincides with the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, remembering not only the destruction of European Jewry, but recalling the heroic revolt. This summer, join Rabbi Tuly Weisz on a Tour of Remembrance to Poland, as we memorialize the six million who perished, and strengthen our commitment to God.
At Passover's end, a group of Jews went out to a field in southern Israel and harvested a small quantity of barley for a purely Biblical purpose rarely fulfilled these days: to offer up the omer, or the wave offering, to God.
Those who survived the Holocaust are inarguably some of the most resilient and inspiring people this world has ever known. Unfortunately, today, many elderly survivors do not receive enough provisions or the financial assistance required to meet their daily needs. Help sustain them in in their need. Donate $50 today and you can provide a week's worth of hot meals for one survivor.
Dear friends, I live in the Far North of New Zealand which must be as far away from Israel as you can get so learning Hebrew is unusual. So grateful for technology! -Jacqui Malcolm
May God bless Israel , may His peace be upon the land and the people of Israel for ever. I visited the country 13 times, I learned the language to a good degree, all because God has put love in my heart for Israel and the Jewish people. I am originally from Serbia, but live in Canada. Am yisrael hi. Sarah Crnak
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. -- Santayana
Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Here in Israel, the sirens will sound at precisely 10am. Every car, truck, bus and taxi cab will pull to a stop. Every worker will lay down his tools. Every classroom will fall silent. Every Jewish Israeli, regardless of what he or she is doing, will stand at attention, listen to the wail of the sirens, and remember those who were ruthless sent to the gas chamber, simply because they were Jews.
How will you remember the Holocaust today? How will you teach your children about the most horrific attempt to exterminate a single people group in the history of mankind?
I encourage you to make time today to remember the six million Jews -- including 1.5 million children -- were systematically murdered by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Read the stories below. Share them on social media. Visit a Holocaust Museum. Watch Schindler's List or one of the other great films about what happened. Read Elie Wiesel's Night. Better yet, find a survivor -- or the son or daughter of a survivor -- and ask them to share their story with you and your family.
Let us honor their memories, and pledge ourselves never to forget them. In so doing, let us pledge to never allow such evil to happen again.
This is not just a time for Jews to remember, or the world to remember the Jews. This is a day for all of mankind to take a decisive stand against evil and against genocide in our time. This is especially critical in the face of the continuing Iranian nuclear threat and the apocalyptic regime in Tehran's repeated vows to annihilate the U.S. and the State of Israel. It is also critical in the light of the genocidal rampage against Muslims, Christians and Yazidis that the apocalyptic leaders of the Islamic State are engaged.
My hope and prayer this year is that in addition to remembering those who died in the “Shoah” (the Holocaust), we will also remember those who lived -- especially four extraordinary heroes who actually escaped from Auschwitz in the spring of 1944 not only to save their own lives but to tell the world the truth about what the Nazis were doing.
In 2014, I wrote a column specifically sketching out their dramatic saga, based on the research I did for the book, including meeting with some of the world's leading Holocaust scholars at Yad Vashem here in Israel. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the whole column, and then share it with others.
They are worth remembering. They are worth emulating. Indeed, as darkness falls once again in the epicenter and around the world, may their tribe increase.
Make an investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net), our non-profit organization to help Christians care for Syrian refugees, educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. Read our latest Donor Report, and make a tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution.
Six million brothers - by Yair Engel of blessed memory.
They look down on us from above, Six million brothers. They look down on us from above crying or laughing, and we're down here, not understanding at all
sitting on another planet, crying and embarrassed. How can a person get up in the morning A seemingly normal person And cut down the living plucking away dreams Erasing yesterday's world How can a simple man created from the earth Bring desolation and ruin to the world, That I will never understand. And to think that everything was done so quickly And systematically, it just drives me crazy. And here's another group of people So good, so innocent dying inhumanely Their world erased between four walls. And now it's late, people, Very late only memories remain, Only memories remain. And even if we try and think a very long time, We will never understand how they allowed themselves To turn six million people into six million names. That I will never understand. And to think that everything was done so quickly And systematically, it just drives me crazy. And despite it all we need to continue Living and be strong because They look down on us from above, crying or laughing, And his sons are so confident, his sons are so confident - Six million brothers. That I will never understand. And to think that everything was done so quickly And systematically, it just drives me crazy.
Yair Engel's grandfather was an Holocaust survivor. An high school visit to Poland's death camps touched and completely changed Yair's life. There, on Poland's bloody earth, he composed this poem. There he chose to serve as a IDF Navy Seal.
Yair passed away in 1996 in a tragic diving accident. After his death his mother found the above poem while cleaning his room.
Tomorrow, on May 5, 2016 - Holocaust Remembrance Day - this poem, written 20 years ago, will be performed in Poland during the "March of the Living".
Yair's father says that two circles will be closed for him, that of Yair and that of his father, an Holocaust survivor.
“He hath remembered His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations.” (Psalm 105:8)
World leaders and communities throughout the globe will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, January 27, with ceremonies, memorials, and events intended to honor victims of the Holocaust and World War II.
While Israel remembers the Holocaust on the Hebrew date of the 27th of Nisan, which usually falls out in May, it is commemorated internationally on the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, which occurred 71 years ago in 1945.
Among those set to recognize the solemnity of the day is American president Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend a ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. The ceremony will honor four people considered Righteous Among the Nations – non-Jews who risked their lives to save or help Jews during the Holocaust.
The main gate at the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and the railroad tracks leading up to it. (Photo: Michel Zacharz /Wikimedia Commons)
One of the men being honored is US Army master-sergeant Roddie Edmonds, from Tennessee, who, along with his soldiers, was imprisoned in a German POW camp during World War II. When asked to identify the Jewish soldiers under his command, Edmonds refused, responding, “We are all Jews.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted the significance of Obama’s decision to attend the event, pointing out at his Sunday cabinet meeting that the American president has not visited the Israeli embassy in the US for many years. He called the event a “testament that the US-Israel relationship…is very strong and stable”, despite recent tensions between the two allies.
In his own remarks on the occasion, Netanyahu said that preserving the memory of the Holocaust was more important than ever in a “period of resurgent and sometimes violent anti-Semitism.”
“It is commemorations like this that remind us all where the oldest and most enduring hatred can lead,” he said. He warned, however, that in Europe and elsewhere, “Jews are once again being targeted just for being Jews,” drawing attention to hatred against individual Jews, the collective Jew and the Jewish state.
“Israel is targeted with the same slurs and the same libels that were leveled against the Jewish people since time immemorial,” he said in his statement. “The obsession with the Jews – the fixation on the Jewish state – defies any other rational explanation.”
Netanyahu pointed out that despite horrifying human rights violations perpetrated by ISIS, North Korea, Iran and Syria, the UN Human Rights Council condemns Israel more often than all of them put together. “Some things just don’t change,” he said.
But, he added, one very important thing has changed – the Jews themselves. “We are no longer a stateless people endlessly searching for a safe haven. We are no longer a powerless people begging others to offer us protection,” he said. “Today we are an independent and sovereign people in our own homeland….Today we can protect ourselves and defend our freedom.”
He concluded that while Israel would protect itself from the openly-declared goals of Iran, ISIS and Hamas to destroy the Jews, “Europe and the rest of the world must stand up together with us. Not for our sake; for theirs.”
Several European leaders also made statements commemorating the day and drawing parallels between the Europe which allowed the Holocaust to happen and modern-day anti-Semitism. In a message to European Jewry on Tuesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that he had never imagined that 71 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, Jews in France would be told to hide their kippahs, Jewish schools and synagogues would have to be guarded, and Europe would be so inhospitable to Jews that immigration to Israel would reach an all-time high.
Juncker said that it was of the utmost importance to “counter the dangerous rise of extremism, racism, xenophobia, nationalism and anti-Semitism.” He added, “We are determined: Never again. Because a Europe of hate is one that we refuse. Because a Europe without Jews would be no longer Europe.”
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently admitted that anti-Semitism in Germany is “more widespread than we imagine,” opened an exhibition of Holocaust art in Berlin featuring 100 works by 50 Jewish Holocaust inmates and survivors, on loan from the Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) at an exhibit of Holocaust art. (Photo: YouTube)
“The millions of individual stories during the Shoah remain deeply rooted in our national conscience,” said Merkel at the opening of the show, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.
At the site of Auschwitz itself, which was liberated by Allied troops on January 27, 1945, Polish President Andrzej Duda is expected to attend the annual memorial ceremony on Wednesday, along with Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
Events and ceremonies marking the day will also take place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and at the United Nations complex in New York.
Last week, the Vatican issued a statement recognizing International Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying that the day “calls for a universal and ever deeper respect for the dignity of every person.”
A Vatican representative said, “In remembering the Holocaust, we also remember that unless all men and women are recognized as one great family and unless we coexist with both neighbor and stranger, inhumanity awaits us.”
The speech of Pastor Victor Styrsky, given on Holocaust Remembrance Day last month, is now surfacing on Israeli social media and is touching the hearts of many.
Styrsky spoke on behalf of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), founded by John Hagee in 2006. CUFI claims 2.5 million members across the United States is probably the most active and vocal pro-Israel Christian organization in the world today. CUFI's unambiguous commitment to Israel stands in sharp contrast to the growing number of Christians whose attitude towards Israel is increasingly crossing the line between criticism and anti-Semitism.
CUFI affirms, what up until a decade or so ago, was considered a mainstream Protestant position on Israel. "The Jewish people," says CUFI, "have a right to live in their ancient land of Israel, and that the modern State of Israel is the fulfillment of this historic right." CUFI also reaffirms, what was the Christian norm up until a few years ago, that "there is no excuse for acts of terrorism against Israel." CUFI goes further than just pro-Israel theological statements. It pledges "to stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel and to speak out on their behalf whenever and wherever necessary until the attacks stop and they are finally living in peace and security with their neighbors."
During his emotional speech, moved to tears himself, Styrsky compared Christians identifying with and participating in BDS type of activities (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) to WWII European Christians who remained untouched by the suffering of the Jewish people. In the wake of "Kristal Nacht", he reminded listeners, the Nazis made three decisions concerning the violence and destruction of that night: The Jews will be held responsible for the pogrom, Insurance compensations owed to Jews will be confiscated by the state and the Jewish community will be forced to pay a heavy fine of billions of Deutsch Marks for instigating "Kristal Nacht." A similar decision was made by the European Union 77 years after that event, when Israel is being blamed for "Palestinian pogroms" and the Jewish nation should be financially penalized for instigating the unrest by boycotting Israeli goods.
"Certain Christians," he said, "are joining the demand to boycott Jewish products. These Christians," he continued, "are the direct ideological decedents of yesterday's Christians whose voices were silence and their doors closed to the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust." Denouncing these types of Christians he went on to promise that CUFI's constituency will do their utmost to help build Israel's future together with the Jews.
Responses to this video went from "Wow. Awesome" to "hair-raising … there is still love in this world … brother Victor … allow me to wash your hands."
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Today marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, which in Hebrew is called “Yom HaShoah” and comes from our verse in Zephaniah describing the devastating destruction of Jerusalem. Yom HaShoah was established by the Knesset and coincides with the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, remembering not only the destruction of European Jewry, but recalling the heroic revolt. On this day, let us memorialize the six million who perished by strengthening our commitment to God, and intensifying our Torah learning.
Noga Peter, 21, and Hadas Avraham Weisbecker, 22, are descendants of heroes who saved Jews in the Holocaust, and now they are continuing their grandparents’ legacies in the Israeli army.
This incredible CD-set describes historical events and personal accounts of survivors before and during the war years. You'll get an in-depth analysis of the political, social, and moral issues affecting perpetrators and victims, collaborators and resisters, apologists and rescue workers during the most appalling event of the twentieth century.
Yes, I do LOVE the photos and stories. When I see your photos and read the stories it helps me stay connected to Israel and reminds me to pray for her peace and protection. Blessings to you Rabbi! Shari T., Michigan, USA
Shalom, I live in Brisbane, Australia. God called me to pray for Israel. I hope to visit you one day. Rosemary
