Holocaust memorial day…

9:59am in our school…1400 teenage girls makes for a very loud corridor…10:00-silence…just like that…what could silence these students in only a matter of seconds? The memories, the pain, the sound of the siren feels like its inside your head making you remember and never letting you forget…at 10:00am this morning here in Israel, everyone was silent…the cars on the highway came to a complete stop, passengers got off of the busses, people stopped laughing, toddlers stood still…and for one entire minute, every single israeli was doing the exact same thing, thinking the exact same thing…for a single minute we were united…united in heart, mind and soul…it took a tragedy to accomplish that…but for once, we were whole…

History is not my favorite subject and as much trouble as I have learning it, i’ve never had trouble learning about one part of it…world war II…maybe its because my grandparents went through it and its important to me to know what they went through, maybe it justs interests me or maybe because as a person I feel that one must know all about these horrors so that they may never have the chance of reoccuring…its all of that and more…its my being a jew and being proud of it no matter what anyone else in the world thinks…its my condemning the nazis, anti-semites, holocaust deniers and every single person that took part in or stood by on the sidelines and was witness to genocide! Its my denouncing all humans that enforce hate, teach inequality and allow discrimination…its my intolerance for people who don’t want change…

Today, on holocaust memorial day, we remember our relatives, close and far, we remember their suffering and pain, we feel them pushing us to stay together and helping us become a nation we can be proud of…we feel them in our hearts, mind and soul…and we shall never, ever forget…!

So no matter where you are, who you are, jewish or gentile, male or female, please take a moment to remember the tragedy that occured once and please take a moment to assure yourself that you will never let it happen again…