Holocaust Remembrance Day
Yom HaShoah commemorates the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust. By standing in silence before unimaginable destruction, we acknowledge the collapse of moral certainties and the terrifying fragility of civilization itself. Memory here is not meant to comfort, but to unsettle—to warn against the ease with which human beings become indifferent, obedient, or cruel. Yom HaShoah demands vigilance rather than answers, insisting that remembrance is a moral act and that forgetting would be a second betrayal.
27 Nisan 5786
Begins at Sundown on Monday, April 13, 2026
Ends at Nightfall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026
While important in its own right, fighting antisemitism is not an answer to assimilation. We need to bring an uplifting and transformative Judaism to our young people and turn being Jewish into an experience of moral and religious grandeur. We must show that Judaism ennobles the commonplace, endowing all worldly matters with hieratic beauty and transcending holiness.
75 Years After the Holocaust
In Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Theodicy and Yom HaShoah by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Rembrandt reminds us that if we want to really live we must show flawless integrity and demonstrate great authenticity. It is all about making a genuine contribution to the world, with no regard for gain, and even being prepared to pay the price of one’s rank and position in the conventional community. A person must make sure that he can look himself in the mirror at the end of his life and say, I lived my life; it did not just pass me by.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai or A.B. Yehoshua?
In Israel, Jewish Thought and Philosophy and Yom HaShoah by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Rabbi Yochanan taught us that Jews can survive without Israel, as long as there is Torah, the portable homeland of the Jewish people. But Jews will not survive solely because of the existence of Israel—however powerful it may be—if Israel does not incorporate a large percentage of Jewish traditional resources.
In Holocaust, Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Theodicy, Parashat Bechukotai and Yom HaShoah by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
It is difficult to argue that the Holocaust was caused by divine anger for the violations of Torah precepts and deliberate heresy.