On Yom HaShoah, We Must Honor Our Past By Heeding Its Lessons

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, released the following statement marking Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day):

“Yom HaShoah must be a reminder not simply to remember but also to act on the lessons of the Holocaust at a time when they are too painfully relevant. 

“These lessons are deeply resonant for me personally, as the granddaughter of survivors. My grandparents somehow survived the horrors, while their families weren’t as fortunate. Over recent years, my family’s stories have transformed from a piece of long-ago history to an urgent cautionary tale for our times, reminding us where hate, persecution, and dehumanization can lead.

“Across our public discourse, institutions, and politics, antisemitism is visibly on the rise and increasingly normalized – and it’s happening alongside broader attacks on our core democratic norms and values and the rule of law that are so inherent to Jewish safety, and the safety of all. 

“These questions of Jewish safety and democracy are inextricably linked, even as extremists seek to pit them against one another. When Jews are targeted, it makes every community and our democracy itself less safe – just as when any other community is targeted and our democracy is undermined, it makes Jews less safe.

“And yet we now see antisemitic, white nationalist conspiracy theories and tropes mainstreamed by political leaders, civil society influencers, social media platforms, and others — underpinning dehumanizing policies and fueling a cycle of deadly violence against Jews and so many others. Meanwhile, over the last year and a half in particular, we have seen a horrifying spike in antisemitic efforts to target Jews in the name of Palestinian rights, and to divide us from the very movements, communities, and spaces necessary to advancing inclusive societies and democracy.  

 “This is all happening alongside a broader onslaught of hate and dehumanization targeting immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, the Black community, and others.

“If we truly are to learn from our history, it requires us to learn from all of it: unequivocally rejecting antisemitism no matter where it exists AND refusing to allow any community’s rights or safety to be threatened – because our values demand it, and our history reminds us these threats will ultimately come for all of us.

May the memory of the six million Jews and many others be a blessing and a lesson as we stand up against antisemitism, hate, and extremism in all their forms.”