‘YOM HASHOAH’ – HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
During the month of April this year and the first day of May, three very important days are commemorated by Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world. The three days are ‘Yom HaShoah’, ‘Yom HaZikaron’, and ‘Yom Ha’Atzmaut’.
On Saturday, 7 October 2023, the Nation of Israel, while observing the Shabbat and celebrating the joyous day of ‘Simchat Torah’, was treacherously attacked by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
More than 1,200 Jewish citizens, mostly civilians, were brutally murdered, including women and children and 260 teenagers at a music festival.
Around 250 men, women, the elderly and children were taken hostage, and a number of hostages are still held captive in Gaza.
Hamas perpetrated rapes followed by torture and unspeakable murders. Children and babies were decapitated.
Muslims worldwide celebrated and demonstrated, not against the beastly atrocities committed by Hamas, but condemning Israel for being the instigators of this horrendous event.
At first the world sympathized with Israel and most condemned the attacks calling Hamas a brutal, savage terrorist organization – which it is.
However as soon as Israel declared war on Hamas in order to defend themselves from such a horrendous attack ever happening again, one by one people and nations have turned against Israel and are condemning Israel.
Human rights organizations are painting Israel as inhumane as they defend themselves against the monsters known as Hamas.
It seems that, just as much of the world has forgotten the Holocaust, the world has already forgotten the terrible atrocities perpetrated by the cowardly, monstrous terrorist group called Hamas.
The world seems to have forgotten that Israel is in a war it never started and never asked for.
This was the worst attack on the Jewish people and Israel since the Holocaust.
This year, ‘Yom Ha’Shoah’ (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is commemorated by Jewish people on the 24th of April which corresponds to the 28th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, 5785 in the Hebrew calendar.
‘Yom Ha’Shoah’ remembers the death of six million Jews through the Holocaust which took place from January 30, 1933 - when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany - to May 8, 1945.
Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler devised a diabolical plan to create a perfect Aryan race in which there was no place for any ‘imperfect’ people. Millions of people throughout Europe were murdered, sent to concentration camps and annihilated, among these were six million Jewish people.
This is a very painful time for Jewish people as many holocaust survivors remember the horror of that time and mourn for fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, grandparents, relatives and friends who were murdered by the Nazis.
In Israel, on the eve of ‘Yom Ha’Shoah’, there is a state ceremony at ‘Yad Vashem’, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Authority. At 10h00 on ‘Yom Ha’Shoah’, throughout Israel, air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes. During this time, people stop what they are doing and stand at attention; cars stop, even on the highways; and the whole country comes to a standstill as people pay silent tribute to the dead.
On the eve of ‘Yom Ha’Shoah’ and the day itself, places of public entertainment are closed by law. Israeli television airs Holocaust documentaries and Holocaust-related talk shows, and low-key songs are played on the radio. Flags on public buildings are flown at half-mast.
Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high school students, and thousands of Jewish people from around the world, hold a memorial service in Auschwitz in what has become known as ”The March of the Living” in defiance of the Holocaust Death Marches.
The atrocities that have been committed against Jewish people throughout the ages are also remembered at this time.
Still today, anti-Semitism is rife throughout the world. Therefore, it is imperative to comfort Israel, especially at this time, according to the Biblical command found in Isaiah 40:1 which declares: ““Comfort yes, comfort My people!” says your God.”
It is also imperative that governments, the church and Christians throughout the world throw off the shackles of being ‘politically correct’ and boldly stand with, pray for, and support Israel and the Jewish people. It is also imperative that people throughout the world make a bold and public stand against anti-Semitism.
As an Orthodox Jew who grew up attending a Jewish school and who was always involved with the Jewish community, I had heard many accounts of the Holocaust and seen too many ghastly images of the annihilation of my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters during the Holocaust. However for the first time in my life, I stood at one of the very spots where this inhumane event took place when my beloved wife of blessed memory and I visited Odessa in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, many Jew haters deny the Holocaust. Holocaust denial consists of claims that the genocide during World War 2 did not occur at all, or that it did not happen in the manner or to the extent historically recognized.
Most Holocaust denial claims imply - or openly state - that the Holocaust is a hoax arising out of a deliberate Jewish conspiracy to advance the interest of Jews at the expense of other peoples.
Well I have news for all Holocaust deniers – the Holocaust was real; it happened; and it took place exactly as described.
You see, while in Odessa we personally met with and spoke to Holocaust survivors. We saw the numbers tattooed on their arms with our own eyes and we heard their horrifying stories with our own ears.
We stood in the very streets where Jewish blood was spilled, and we stood on the very spot from which innocent Jewish men, women and children were marched to the train station to be herded into cattle cars like animals and sent to their death in concentration camps.
To my horror and sadness, my wife and I were told that when members of the Jewish agency recently went into the streets of Odessa to ask the younger generation what the Holocaust was, some answered that “The Holocaust is something out of China”; “The Holocaust is a plant of some sort” etc.
The Gentile youth of today, who live in a city where the atrocities of the Holocaust took place just over eighty short years ago, have no clue about the Holocaust…and Holocaust survivors live among them - WHAT A SHAME!
However, is it any different amongst other nations – even amongst some of the church?
Many Gentiles and professing Christians may know about the Holocaust, but do they really care? I am not saying that this is the general attitude of the church and of church leaders, but sadly I do have to say that the indifference amongst some church leaders and much of the church to the Jewish people and to Israel dismays and saddens me.
In fact, I wonder how many churches around the world – and certainly here in South Africa where I live – remembers and prays for Jewish Holocaust survivors, who are the flesh and blood brothers and sisters of Jesus.
How many church leaders actually pray for Jewish Holocaust survivors from the pulpit?
If you don’t care about Jewish Holocaust survivors (and Jewish people in general) who are the flesh and blood brothers and sisters of Yeshua, how much do you really care for Jesus who is the Jewish ‘Moshiach’ (Messiah) and Saviour of mankind?
Allow me to quote three New Testament scriptures:
Matthew 25:31-40 (spoken by Jesus Himself): “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these MY BRETHREN, you did it to Me.’”
Revelation 5:5:“But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, THE ROOT OF DAVID, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
Revelation 22:16 (spoken by Jesus Himself): “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I AM THE ROOT AND THE OFFSPRING OF DAVID, the Bright and Morning Star.”
I spoke with the director of the Jewish agency who supports the Holocaust survivors in Odessa, himself a Holocaust survivor. It was he who told my wife and I about the survey taken amongst the youth in Odessa. As he told us, tears shot into his eyes.
I told him that part of the calling of Emet Ministries is to make sure that the truth of what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is related to the Gentile church and to the world. I promised him that as long as I had breath in my body, I would not let the world and the church forget about the horrific, brutal murder of twelve million innocent men, women and children, six million of whom were Jews - whose only crime was that they were Jews.
I will make sure that, wherever and whenever I can, I will relate what happened to six million Jews in the Holocaust; and so should you – especially if you are Jewish or a professing Christian.
In my opinion, keeping quiet about the Holocaust is just as bad as denying the Holocaust.
Please pray for Israel, her people and for Jewish Holocaust survivors and let us fulfil the G-d-given command in Isaiah 40:1: “Nachamu, nachamu ami yomer Eloheichem” (“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God”.)
We at Emet Ministries stand together with Israel and the Jewish people and mourn with them as they mourn the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
