Yom HaShoah

Jewish Calendar

Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is Israel's official day of commemorating the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and the Jewish resistance during that period. It is usually observed on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. The day is marked by ceremonies, services, air raid sirens in Israel during which people silently reflect, and special prayers.

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A Prayer for the Souls of the Holocaust Victims

LITURGY

Yizkor is a Jewish Ashkenazi memorial prayer service for the dead. This version of the Yizkor prayer for victims of the Holocaust is an invocation of divine mercy and justice and is traditionally recited on Yom HaShoah, among other occasions.

Prayer for the Victims of the Holocaust: Our Father, our King, God of the spirits of all flesh, give proper rest upon the wings of the Divine Presence, on the levels of the holy and pure ones [who] shine like the splendor of the firmament, [for] the souls of the six million Jews, men and women, boys and girls, that were exterminated and slaughtered and asphyxiated and buried alive by the hands of monsters in the exile of Europe. All of them are holy and pure; among them were luminaries and righteous people, 'cedars of Lebanon' and giants of Torah. Let their rest be in the Garden of Eden…

Yizkor 13-14

Commemorating Yom HaShoah

JEWISH THOUGHT

In 2020, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks partnered with the Holocaust Educational Trust to create a series of videos addressing topics of Jewish Thought and the Holocaust, like the question of where God was during the Holocaust. This work records excerpts from the videos.

Yom HaShoah is Israel’s official day of Holocaust remembrance when Jews around the world remember the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah, and the countless examples of Jewish heroism and resistance during those years. The following quotes have been taken from a series of videos recorded in 2020, in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust, to coincide with Yom HaShoah and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation. You can watch the full video series at rabbisacks.org/holocaust.

Ceremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Yom HaShoah, In a Nutshell 1

Remembering the Holocaust through Lamentation

LITURGY

The Holocaust is remembered and mourned in Jewish tradition through a special lamentation. This lamentation, composed by Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, a prominent Holocaust survivor, is recited on Tisha B'Av, a day of mourning in Judaism.

A Kinnah in memory of the Holocaust martyrs, by Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the Bobover Rav Remember and may all Israel grieve. Your voice will be heard on high For Germany has destroyed our people in the terrible days of the war’s wrath, with cruel and terrible deaths, by starvation and thirst. Do not forget for all generations,until we merit consolation.

Kinnot for Tisha B'Av (Ashkenaz), Kinot for Tisha B'Av Day 46:1-5

The First Righteous Gentile

COMMENTARY

The story of Pharaoh's daughter could be seen as the first 'righteous gentile' in Jewish tradition, providing a lens to understand the role of righteous gentiles during the Holocaust. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his 21st-century collection of essays, explores this symbolic representation and its relevance to modern history.

Outside Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, is an avenue dedicated to righteous gentiles. Pharaoh’s daughter is a supreme symbol of what they did and what they were. I, for one, am profoundly moved by that encounter on the banks of the Nile between an Egyptian princess and a young Israelite child, Moses’ sister Miriam. The contrast between them – in terms of age, culture, status and power – could not be greater. Yet their deep humanity bridges all the differences, all the distance. Two heroines. May they inspire us.

Covenant and Conversation; Exodus; The Book of Redemption, Shemot, The Light at the Heart of Darkness 20

Courage and Faith Amidst the Holocaust

COMMENTARY

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising showcased the resilience and courage of the Jewish people. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his haggadah, commemorates this event and the faith of the Jewish people in the coming of the Messiah, despite the atrocities they faced.

POUR OUT YOUR RAGE UPON THE NATIONS
Some add, at this point, the following prayer in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the courage of those in the Warsaw ghetto who, on the eve of Pesaḥ 1943, rose up against the Nazis who had planned to destroy the ghetto and kill all its inhabitants on the first day of Pesaḥ:
On this night of the seder we remember with reverence and love the six million of our people of the European exile who perished at the hands of a tyrant more wicked than the Pharaoh who enslaved our forefathers…

The Jonathan Sacks Haggadah, Barech, Pour Out Thy Wrath 2:3

Resisting Amalek in the Lodz Ghetto

JEWISH THOUGHT

Young Chasidim in the Lodz Ghetto viewed the Germans as Amalek and developed principles to resist the psychological tyranny of the Nazis. In his 20th-century work, Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Berkovits explores Jewish resilience and spiritual resistance during the Holocaust.

We know of at least one other group of young ḥasidim who saw the confrontation with the Germans very much like the Mottesovzes. Overcoming the tyranny of fear in the ghetto of Lodz, this ḥavrutah trained itself to remember each day three fundamental principles: (a) The German is Amalek (the traditional enemy of the Jewish people). Whatever he says, one has to do the opposite. (b) Because he is indeed Amalek, one need not be surprised by his behavior and actions and one must not be afraid because of them…

With God in Hell, 6 Confrontation; the Ultimate Issue 25-28

Amalie Seckbach, Portrait of a Woman Amid Sunflower Plants. Painting made in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) ghetto, 1944

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