Vhee Sheh' amda- In every Generation...

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Eli Wiesel

MARTIN LUTHER, "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543)

First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly and I myself was unaware of it will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.

Did Anne Frank really exist?

In 1958, at a performance of The Diary of Anne Frank in Vienna, Simon Wiesenthal was challenged by a group of protesters who asserted that Anne Frank had never existed, and who challenged Wiesenthal to prove her existence by finding the man who had arrested her. Wiesenthal indeed began searching for Karl Silberbauer and found him in 1963. When interviewed, Silberbauer admitted his role, and identified Anne Frank from a photograph as one of the people arrested. Silberbauer provided a full account of events, even recalling emptying a briefcase full of papers onto the floor. His statement corroborated the version of events that had previously been presented by witnesses such as Otto Frank.

Opponents of the diary continued to express the view that it was not written by a teen, but was a hoax, with Otto Frank being accused of fraud.

American anti semitism 2016/2017

Jews across the United States are increasingly alarmed at the rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the country.

In December, the New York City Police Department noted a 115% increase in bias crimes in the previous month, with Jews the target of 24 out of 43 incidents in that period. On February 27, 2017, for the fifth time in recent weeks, bomb threats roiled over 100 JCCs and Jewish schools across the country, forcing students, staff, elderly members and young babies to evacuate.

A bullet was fired through the window of a Hebrew school classroom in Indiana. Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Swastikas have been carved into schools, libraries, and even inside the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Here's what a typical bomb threat sounds like:

“It’s a C-4 bomb with a lot of shrapnel, surrounded by a bag… In a short time, a large number of Jews are going to be slaughtered. Their heads are going to (be) blown off from the shrapnel. There’s a lot of shrapnel. There’s going to be a bloodbath that’s going to take place in a short time….”


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story