Remembering the Holocaust

Each year on the 27th of Nisan (this year April 23-24, 2017), Jews around the world observe Yom HaShoah (יום השואה), or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on which we remember the approximately six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

We remember those who perished, as well those families who lost loved ones during this dark time in history.

But it is not only Jews who should remember this day; we should all constantly remember the evil that is possible in our nations when populist authoritarians seek to single out and target particular minority groups and blame them for what they believe to be the problems with our country.

When we say, “Never again,” this should not only be a rallying cry for Jews who must remain vigilant against those who, to this very day, seek their destruction, but it should also be a rallying cry for non-Jews, who must vow never again to stand idly by and hold the coats of those who would persecute Jews, or any minority group, in our midst.

It is good to remember. Today, let us remember those who died, and commit ourselves to taking the steps necessary to ensure that nothing like the Holocaust ever happens again.

Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Jerusalem

 

Remembering the Armenian Genocide

Today, April 24, we remember the Armenian Genocide, beginning in 1915, where the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire (soon thereafter the Republic of Turkey) oversaw the coordinated extermination of somewhere between 600,000 to 1.6 million Armenians, along with other Christian minorities.

As a proud son of the central San Joaquin Valley, a Fresno State alum, a frequent visitor to Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, and a friend and ally of the Armenian community in Fresno, whose contributions have helped shape the cultural heritage of the city that raised me, I ask that you pause for a moment today to remember those who perished and those who lost loved ones during this horrendous, and all too often overlooked (and by some, even denied) catastrophe that was the Armenian Genocide.

To learn more, visit the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute webpage or visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex atop the hill of Tsitsernakaberd memorial in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.

The eternal flame burns at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan (photo: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images via IB Times).