More than two decades ago, Rabbi Avi Weiss, the founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, created, edited and wrote a Haggadah for the Yom HaShoah Seder, Holocaust Remembrance event, which is annually remembered at the synagogue. As time passes, the memory of the Shoah fades, and Holocaust survivors, those who suffered and can bear witness, diminish in number. Rav Weiss said we must find a way to pass the torch of memory to the future generations, to whom we can say, “Remember,” and “Do not forget.”
“Soon the only ones left to tell the story will be those who did not live through the event themselves,” said Rav Weiss. “It will fall to succeeding generations, as the Passover Haggadah teaches, to repeat the narrative and re-experience it as if they themselves were there. Although we were not physically there, we, too, are survivors. There is no event in Jewish history that is remembered without ritual. Therefore, we enact a ritual in the form of a Seder for the remembrance of the Shoah.”
The Seder’s four parts include Churban Gashmi, re-enacting the Physical Destruction; Churban Ruchani, the Spiritual Destruction; Churban Banim U’Vanot, Destruction of Children, remembering the more than one and a half million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis; and Gevarah, Resistance.
The Yom HaShoah Seder begins with words written in the Yiddish language: “Dos iz di gele latte—This is the yellow badge as all pin onto their clothing the hated yellow Jewish star imposed on our people.”
This year, after the Seder began, survivors of the Shoah came forward to sing “Ani Ma’amim,” the Jewish anthem of ultimate faith sung by many during the Holocaust, as six yahrzeit candles were lit, representing the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and a siren was sounded for one minute, simulating the moment of remembrance observed in Israel on Yom HaShoah.
Recreating the Jews during the Holocaust being shorn of their dignity and possessions, all removed their shoes and placed their wallets, watches and valuables inside. These possessions were placed away from the participants. A survivor’s testimony was read.
All donned a yellow Jewish star, remembering what the Nazis forced Jews to wear, and potato peelings were offered to enable participants to feel the deprivation and starvation imposed on those imprisoned and starved by the Nazis. Reenacting the pain of the loss of opportunities for learning, a page printed with the Hebrew alphabet was ripped in half and set on fire. Each person’s forearm was then stamped with a number, recreating how the Evil Ones tattooed people, reducing them to numbers.
Children were instructed to leave their parents and go to a corner of the room; this separation was, for me, the most horrible experience of the evening.
In Gevurah, Resistance, we remember the heroes who led the uprising in Treblinka, the courageous fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, and take pride in the strength of the Jewish partisan fighters who took up arms against all odds and, alone and outnumbered, fought the enemy.
Rav Weiss recited “The Dry Bones,” composed in Auschwitz in 1959 by his father of blessed memory, Rabbi Dr. Moshe Weiss; “Oyfn Pripetchik” and “Undser Shetyl Brent” (Our Town Is Burning) were sung.
Rav Stephen Exler then led the participants, Holocaust survivors, their children, grandchildren and synagogue members in singing the Shir HaPartizan (Partisan’s Hymn, words by Hirsch Gick) and Hatikvah.
Robert Kalfus can be contacted at [email protected] and (917) 917-4165.
