When someone who has died is mentioned, we say "May her (his) memory be a blessing". Today is a day we come to with conflicted feelings - wanting to remember and yet, not wanting to remembers. International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The anniversary of the liberation from the Auschwitz Birkenau death camp in Poland. SO many precious human lives were taken from us. But now is a time for remembrance and telling our story. No, telling THEIR stories - to future generations

Memorization of facts is not the most important thing. Understanding those facts and comprehending them well enough to share them with others in a meaningful and intelligible way is or primary importance. Remembrance must include proactive education. We must remember as Jews to tell the story so it is not forgotten.

I will never forget. I have been to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have seen the preserved remnants of the Nazi genocide of Jews in Europe. The gas showers and ovens. The possessions taken from the prisoners. It haunts me. The pure evil intentionality and systematic destruction of human life. It haunts me.

I think that getting too comfortable with the institutional and structural racism embedded in American society has led to American Jews facing the firestorm of antisemitic rhetoric, threats and attacks it is now facing and has been facing since the October Massacre in late 2023. As an African American Jew I live in all that of which I am daily. I cannot hide. I wear my skin color, gender and the kippa on my head. I am always bold and proud, as I should be, about being who I am, and I am an African American Jewish woman. I learned as a child, from my African American culture, that I am beautiful and inherently blessed and knowing that, I should hold my head up high and keep my joy. I do not want anyone to relate to me with the thought that I am not all of who I am in the room. The message is now clear, with the rising antisemitism in the USA and elsewhere, that Jewish people need to be joyful, proud and bold about who we are and our values. To paraphrase Hillel, if we are not for ourselves, who will be?

Holocaust deniers abound. Fewer and fewer young people have any real knowledge of understanding of how it began, of events like Kristallnacht and incendiary public speeches labeled as free speech and how it grew bigger and bigger with silent complicity until it became the intentional murder of 6 million Jews - which is genocide.

So let us all in the Jewish community remember it is important NOW to speak up. Do not be a silent complicit witness to antisemitism - the violent words and actions the intimidation and threats. It even comes in the form of twisting facts and denying history. Do not let even the smallest thing pass by. Never give an inch and stand proud in your Judaism. Stand proud of your heritage. And say it loud.