Never forget

Today is Yom Hashoah: the day on which we remember the 6 million martyrs. At my shul this morning, the rabbi read out a list of the names of all of the people lost by members of the shul. A terrible list of brothers and sisters lost, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who do not share in the lives of their children. A gap that will never be filled, and will never be forgotten.

Today is also the day of the brit milah of the first-born son of a dear friend of mine. As we all, family, friends, and community, joined to celebrate the entry of this precious child into the family of Israel, we paid ultimate tribute to the failure of the Nazis, and of all who would destroy us: we survived, our sons and our daughters are Jews still, and we continue in the faith of our forefathers, Avraham, Yitschak, and Yaakov. May it always be so, amen.