7.30.2008

Never Again clip

A short movie made for a report on Jewish Ghettos. Almost all of the photos are from the ghettos, although some of the pictures are about the Holocaust in general.

Music - "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Pink Floyd

Yom HaZikaron laShoah Ve'laGvura or Yom HaShoah (יום השואה , יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה) - "Holocaust (and Heroism) Remembrance Day" - is held in the early spring, on the 27th day of Nisan according to the Hebrew calendar. In Israel, however, observance is moved back a day if 27 Nisan falls on a Friday or forward a day if 27 Nisan falls on a Sunday (to avoid adjacency with the Jewish Sabbath). In the Diaspora, Yom HaShoah is generally observed on 27 Nisan regardless.
Yom Hashoa is a day set aside for remembering the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In Israel, it is a national memorial day.
Yom HaShoah was inaugurated in 1959, anchored in a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.
The original proposal was to hold Yom Hashoah on the 15th of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising (April 19, 1943), but this was problematic because the 15th of Nissan is the first day of Pesach (Passover). The date was moved to the 27th of Nisan, which is eight days before Yom Ha'atzma'ut, or Israeli Independence Day.
While many Orthodox Jews commemorate the Holocaust on Yom Hashoah, some in the Orthodox community remember the victims of the Holocaust on days of mourning declared by the rabbis before the Holocaust, such as Tisha b'Av in the summer, and the Tenth of Tevet, in the winter. It is interesting to note that Ismar Schorsch, former Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary (of the Conservative movement) held that Holocaust commemoration should take place on Tisha b'Av.
Most Jewish communities hold a solemn ceremony on this day, but there is no institutionalized ritual. Lighting memorial candles and reciting the Kaddish - the prayer for the departed - are common.
On the eve of Yom HaShoah in Israel, there is a state ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Authority. At 10:00am on Yom HaShoah, 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 HaShoah 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 Hebrew and Yiddish songs are played on the radio. Flags on public buildings are flown at half mast.
Those Jews in the Diaspora who observe Yom HaShoah may observe it within the synagogue, as well as in the broader Jewish community. Commemorations range from synagogue services to communal vigils and educational programs. Many Yom HaShoah programs feature a talk by a Holocaust survivor, recitation of appropriate psalms, songs and readings, or viewing of a Holocaust-themed film. Some communities choose to emphasize the depth of loss that Jews experienced in the Holocaust by reading the names of Holocaust victims one after another -- dramatizing the unfathomable notion of six million deaths. Many Jewish schools also hold Holocaust-related educational programs on, or around, Yom HaShoah.
Also during this day, tens of thousands of Israeli high-school students, and thousands of Jews 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. This event is endorsed and subsidized by the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Holocaust Claims Conference, and is considered an important part of the school curriculum -- a culmination of several months of studies on World War II and the Holocaust.

Article and video by Shmaya
March 29, 2008

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