This year I am choosing not to post an image, as no photo can communicate the horrific nature of the injustice referred to as The Shoah.
Shoah means catastrophe, great calamity. It is used by some (and universally here in Israel) to refer to what is know as The Holocaust, as the word holocaust has misleading religious implications. (Holocaust is derived from a Greek word meaning whole offering, burnt sacrifice, namely on an altar)
The period between the second day of Passover and the holiday of Shavuos, forty nine days later, is a time of mourning for the Jewish people, and during this period, or in some cases up until the thirty third day of this period, many of the rules of mourning are observed: no weddings, no music, no haircuts, no festive parties etc.
Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed now, as this is an appropriate time period to mourn the 6 million innocent Jews whose lives were taken simply because they were born Jewish. In today's world this seems so improbable, and is so very difficult to understand. And yet it did happen, and so our task today is to never forget and to make sure that a tragedy of this magnitude never ever happens again.
