My Generation on Holocaust Remembrance Day

People my age think Holocaust survivors are invincible--that they will live forever; forever part of, engrained, enmeshed in the fabric of our heritage, our every tradition, our identity.

But we are far too blessed—we, my generation, Jewish youth, are seldom apathetic and as a result, we are prone to taking Holocaust survivors and their testimonials for granted—take the Shoah for granted--We grew up with it. But, it is the Shoah that has built our foundation, the basis of our very survival—we, my generation, is who we are today because of the people who went through hell and back—the people who hid, the people who escaped death and survived concentration camps, the people who gave us, my generation, choice because they had none.

You gave us reason, or better yet, passed on reason to live—not only to live, but be thankful to live. It is because of you, the Holocaust survivors of the world, that me and so many other younger generations can do what we want—freely, without persecution—so, I say, we will be damned if we don’t tribute our survivors the way they deserve—we, my generation, owes it to all of them.

How dare I or my generation turn a blind eye on the possibilities that the Holocaust can happen again—we should never be so complacent—how dare we, my generation, turn a blind eye on Eretz Yisrael.

We, my generation, owe it to you- our survivors- to us and our children and our children’s children to live H’kol Israel, free, in peace, humbled by our Judaism, grateful, forever, for our past. We will never turn a blind eye.

Join The Yellow Rose Project and learn from a survivor or perhaps dance together at their prom, a right of passage survivors never had- an event our generation takes for granted.

Let us learn from our survivors, but more importantly, celebrate them.