Just another racist day

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2022    

HMD theme this year is One Day.

HMD is one day each year that remembers Dead Jews. Even with just one day of commemoration of dead Jews, I would prefer that we were better at caring for live ones. Lighting a candle to acknowledge the past is not enough as if that has solved the problem that is still with us.

There seems to be an idea, totally lacking in evidence, that the Sacrifice of Jews will somehow make things better. I look at the countries that felt that way during WW2 and wonder how they thought that and how much good that has done them. Even now these same countries have a huge rise in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Lessons not learnt.

Jews seem to have been the sacrificial lambs to appease some strange gods since the Romans sacrificed that Jew, Jesus, and then blamed the Jews. Blaming the victim for the crime is not new.

Among the anti-Semites, Jews have been the people to blame for everything: The weather is too sunny- it’s the Jews. The rain is too heavy- it’s the Jews. I do not have a well-paid job- it’s the Jews. The rich are getting richer- it’s the Jews. The C19 virus has spread- it’s the Jews.

For such a tiny number of people we are told we have immense power. Jews control the media, the money, the property, the world; they are successful, rich and famous; educated and smart: I always think : if that is all true, why didn’t you all convert?

Stupidity can be defined as repeating the same action again and again but expecting different results. With this stupid and continual rise in anti-Semitism, Jews are still being sacrificed to some ineffectual gods. Perhaps this is the One Day that should awaken the stupid to start to be grown up and reflect on their own personal contribution to their own lives instead of finding blame elsewhere.

On this HMD we remember the sacrifice of 6 million of Jews, not on one day but on many days, sacrificed for the huge and stupid ego of a vain little man for a plan that relied, yet again, on blaming the ‘other’, and yet again that ‘other’ was the Jew, rather than being grown up and fixing the problem.

The sacrifice of 6 million Jews has not made the world better or made you happier. Only you can do that. So instead of thinking sacrifices will save you doing the work, do the work. Begin that work by ending anti-Semitism.

In Judaism, sacrifice does not mean giving something up. It is from the word Korban- to come closer- to come closer to the Divine, to share your table with the Divine, not try to obliterate an entire nation.

Instead of the slaughter and sacrifice of Jews, start the work. The Divine rested on the 7^th day from the work of creation and left the rest to us. So start the work, the work of completing creation, of repairing the world, Tikkun Olam, of making this place as glorious as it was before our huge egos, our vanity and dull, repetitive stupidity got in the way.

Let us all realise that each and every one of us is in the likeness to the Divine and stop trying to diminish the other or looking for another excuse to blame others for your lives. Let our sacrifices be toil, care for ourselves, care of each other and making the world as healthy as possible. Let this be the real sacrifice so that One Day, we will not know what anti-Semitism is and we will not need any more memorials or mausoleums to dead Jews. Let our own work and repair be our true remembrance to honour murdered people.