Last Sunday began early, ahead of our services for Holocaust Memorial Day. I had been invited to speak on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme regarding the Beckham family crisis. I chose to speak on the theme of honouring one’s parents, a concept central to Jewish tradition and vital wherever possible.
To illustrate this, I shared a story from the Talmud about a man who was offered a phenomenal business deal. He declined it because the keys to his safe were tucked under a pillow where his mother was sleeping; he refused to disturb her rest, even for a fortune.
This story feels particularly apposite as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The dwindling generation of Shoah survivors are, in a sense, parents to us all. Their legacy and personal testimonies are a treasured inheritance that must inform our lives and those of the next generation.
In these recent years of anguish – marked by the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians – the act of remembrance becomes even more critical. Whether through communal Yizkor or personal Yahrzeits, memory is the golden thread of Jewish life. This year’s HMD theme, “Bridging the Generations,” is therefore deeply welcome. While not a date on the Jewish calendar, HMD was established by the British government on 27 January 2001 to mark the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. It insists on the passing of memory to the young, reminding us of the incapacitating truth of human cruelty, a truth evidenced today from the streets of Minnesota to Tehran.
Last Shabbat at FPS, we were privileged to hear from Lydia Tischler, MBE. As both a Holocaust survivor and a child psychotherapist, she spoke with unique authority. Her final words to us were a warning:
“Be aware of the dangers of projection that can result in the dehumanising of the ‘other.’ By understanding that impulse, you are more likely to resist it. Projection is at the heart of every cruel act and regime. To project our own darkness onto others and deny their humanity is what unleashes cruelty.”
She explained that this psychological mechanism was at the core of the Holocaust and every genocide since. It is a call to remain vigilant.
I brought our baby orphan scroll from Prague to the service at St Mary’s in Finchley that was attended by local councillors, MPs and the Mayor.
I showed the binder, from the monochrome in Praha to brightly coloured at FPS, bearing the names of babies blessed in our synagogue. One of those children celebrated his Bar Mitzvah last June using that very binder.
These threads are woven together: past and present, stories and impulses for courage. May the memories of those murdered in the Shoah, and in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and beyond, be for a blessing. May we take seriously our duty to carry them forward.
Shabbat shalom,
Rebecca
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