Today is Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day.
It is a day to remember the 6 million who perished.
But beyond that, it is a day of reflection: on the world that let it happen, on Jewish identity before and after the Holocaust, on Israel and its role, and on where we go from here.
Sadly, this day gets more and more relevant each year, as antisemitism rises and the world sits idly by.
Meryl has some must-read links. Jewlicious has the story of the MTV Holocaust commemoration special, which is probably not as irreverant as it sounds (at least I hope not). Allison has second-grade humour with a bitter Holocaust twist. And Jewschool promotes a rally against the genocide going on in Sudan’s Darfur region – only the latest chapter in the countless episodes of “Again” that have occurred since we resolved “Never Again”.
I think i want to become a jew.
Where do I start?
I’m reading a book I picked up in the Faubourg called The Israelis. I’m not sure what to make of it… It is, I would say, the result of a mix between the author’s impressionistic impressions, and real-life ethnography… so not truly objective… as if anyone could be objective about Israel or Israelis in any case! Anyway, check it out, it is circa 2003, and the author has a German-American name… Diane Rosenthal, maybe, something like that…
You want to become a Jew? Go to your nearest Orthodox Rabbi and he’ll get you going!