Daily Letter 27: Kristallnacht and Today

Kristallnacht and Today

The 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht begins tonight and tomorrow.

1,400 Synagogues were destroyed (92 Jews murdered, 30,000 sent to Concentration Camps).

1,400 is a number that, for us, is too raw and painful and familiar.

“If you’ve ever wondered how you might have behaved, had you been a German on the morning after Kristallnacht. If you ever wondered if you’d have just gone about your business, or done something to resist the slide of your society into absolute depravity. More or less, everyone on earth is now getting a chance to see just that. There was a mob chanting gas the Jews in front of the Sydney Opera House…” To all who have responded as they so far have, Sam Harris notes, “You are now a part of history.”

How will history record our response?

Ruth Haran, a Holocaust survivor living in Israel, today describes the enormity of her agony.

We hope you can travel to Washington DC this coming Tuesday, November 14, to share our solidarity.

Am Yisrael Chai.
Rabbi William Hamilton