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ONTARIO — A Holocaust Remembrance Service was held at Sar Shalom Center on Tuesday, April 30th with citizens and local dignitaries attending.
County Commissioner Marilyn John presented a proclamation from the Board of Commissioners and Mansfield City Councilmen Cliff Mears and David Falquette also participated.
Guest speaker, Rabbi Michael Humphrey of Rosh Pinah Congregation in Bath, Ohio reminded those in attendance of the grim realities of anti-Semitism. According to Rabbi Humphrey, anti-Semitism does not stop with the Jewish people, but everyone that supports them.
“Every one of you would have been included in the Holocaust by the very fact that you are sitting in this room,” the Rabbi said.
Rabbi Humphrey also pointed out that the world is comprised of two types of people: the righteous and the unrighteous; with the unrighteous greatly outnumbering the righteous. He believes the increase in anti-Semitic attacks reflect an anti-Semitic sentiment that has always been present. The difference now is that anti-Semitic thoughts are expressed publicly rather than privately.
The words: “never forget,” have become the symbolic words associated with the Holocaust. But has the Holocaust been forgotten?
Rabbi Michael Humphrey
“Every one of you would have been included in the Holocaust by the very fact that you are sitting in this room,”
Schoen Consulting conducted a 2018 survey finding that some are forgetting. Seventy percent of those who responded said that fewer people seemed to care about the Holocaust. Eleven percent of adults, and twenty-two percent of Millennials answered they had never heard or were unsure if they had heard of the Holocaust.
Perhaps more telling is the increase in anti-Semitic attacks. The mass shootings at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the recent attack at the Chabad of Poway in San Diego two weeks ago appear to be the culmination of a growing trend of anti-Semitism in recent years.
A recent press release from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), reported 1,879 attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in the United States in 2018, the third-highest year on record since ADL started tracking in the 1970s. The anti-Semitic incidents of 2018 represented a 99% increase over just 3 years prior. The numbers were just as alarming in 2017, with 1,986 incidents reported.
Rabbi Humphrey reminded those in attendance that God is the defender of Israel.
“That doesn’t mean we stand weak and idly by, when the weak are being harmed; we should become a voice. If we are praying about what is going on, God cannot be silent for His people, He will respond to us. We need to fight in prayer-to ask GOD to return and stop the evil”
Rabbi Humphrey reminded those in attendance that, “Ultimately it is not the response of purveyors of evil that matters, but rather it is the response of the righteous that changes the world.”
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Jeremiah Thirty-Three, “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings.”
