FAIRFAX, Va.— Monday is Yom Ha’Shoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, and commemorations were held ahead of the observance to honor the lives of those who perished during the genocide.
This year’s observance occurs nearly two weeks after hate-based graffiti was spray painted on the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia and the nearby Little River United Church of Christ as both Passover and Holy Week traditions were underway. An arrest was made that same week.
On Sunday, the Holocaust Observance held in Northern Virginia centered on the experiences of both Holocaust survivors and today’s many refugees seeking asylum around the world and in the United States. The theme highlighted the struggles displaced people experience when trying to find a new place to call home.
“We have a responsibility to welcome the stranger and to provide for those who are least able to provide for themselves. That’s a Jewish value, it’s a universal value and we take that very seriously,” said Jeff Dannick, executive director of the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.
Dannick pointed out a display on loan to the center recognizing Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
“We know that during the Holocaust there were people who reached out and helped the Jews and the other victims … and we know that there were people that turned their backs on us as well,” he said.
Remembrance traditions include reading the first and last names of Holocaust victims.
“You read the age of the person, where they lived, and where they were killed; breaking it down like that on an individual basis like that makes you realize that this wasn’t something that happened to a huge group of people, but happened to lots and lots of individuals,” said Del. Marcus Simon, D-Falls Church.
“The key to remembrance is dedication — to tapping onto that part of our heritage in order to better understand ourselves, to better know where we come from and to use that deeper understanding to be a force for light and justice both to our own people and to the rest of the world,” said Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
Siegel also said nowadays, vigilance is needed to prevent resurgent waves of hateful expression.
Humanity is a work in progress, she said, and the danger of complacency persists.
“Unfortunately, the incidents that happened here (at the Jewish Center) and the church down the road remind us that as comfortable as we might think we feel, we always need to be vigilant.
“It’s especially from that place of perceived security and comfort that we need to continue to recognize that security and comfort can’t be taken for granted. We need to be vigilant against the growth of hatred in our community, and the normalized expression of hatred in our community as well,” she said.
