In the words of Elie Wiesel, “Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair” This sentiment was echoed on Monday, Jan. 27, at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, and again on Wednesday, Jan. 29, when the New York City Council (NYCC) held a Holocaust remembrance commemoration at City Hall.
City Council member Eric Dinowitz, who represents the 11th District, organized the remembrance ceremony. This year, Dinowitz and the rest of the Jewish caucus announced the passing of Resolution 713, which recognizes Jan. 27 not only as Holocaust Remembrance Day but also as Auschwitz Liberation Day on the city and state levels.
Congressman Dan Goldman, representing New York’s 10th District, used his speech to talk about Jewish genetic memory. This is not to say that Jewish citizens actually remember everything from their ancestors’ lives; instead, it is part of an idea that was proliferated among the Jewish diaspora following the Holocaust: that Jewish people, after 3,000 years, continuously face traumatic attacks on their communities and culture. Instead of forgetting what happened and moving on, they honor their past by creating holidays and days of remembrance to add to the Jewish story from which future generations can gain insight and guidance.
The ceremony gave many members of Manhattan’s Jewish community the time to speak. Some didn’t even use words, like a quintet from LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts–Becca Kolber, Deanna Sherm, Valentine Rivian-Sauvage, Gavriel Carmi and Diogo Muggiati-Feildman–putting their own spin on John Williams’ classic “Theme from Schindler’s List,” as well as an original piece.
A large portion of the night was devoted to Holocaust survivor Gabriella Major, a Hungarian-Jewish-American immigrant, who gave a particularly long speech on her experiences with antisemitism and how it changed throughout her life. She spoke about fleeing from the Nazis as a child to pogroms (the act of ethnicity cleansing Jews particularly from Slavic lands) by the Hungarian communist party, the synagogue shootings of the last decade and now the rise of online hate to anything related to Judaism following the events of Oct. 7, 2023. She then urged the Jewish community of America and their allies to stand together against hate of any kind, passionately stating, “We Survivors will Not be Silent” and “We cannot let hatred extinguish our lights.” These are a message of Tikkun Olam, a core element of the Jewish faith that promotes kindness in order to make the world a better place.
A common theme of the night was that the Jewish community is strong together but much like every other minority in the United States they need to foster continuous relationships with other communities such as LGBTQ, African American and many others. Many allusions also reminded the audience to avoid blindly following Strong-Man-type figures. 80 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz, the Jewish community remembers their painful history and knows the fight to end hate is still an ongoing struggle.
