Yom HaShoah: Make a difference in someone's life

Today is Yom HaShoah.  In addition to remembering and memorializing victims of the Holocaust, I hope we will all do something make a tangible difference in the lives of those who are still with us.  Judah Gabriel said it well in "Help! We Need More Than Lip Service.":

Today is Holocaust Remembrance day, and surprising to many, thousands of Holocaust survivors are still alive today. And, if you can believe it, many of them live in abject poverty. It’s pretty freakin’ sad that the people who endured the worst kinds of torture and persecution are the ones still suffering now, while the rest of us live comfortably and securely.

Instead of writing some nice lip service on your Facebook wall about Holocaust Remembrance, how about donating a few bucks to Chevrah Humanitarian? Chevrah is a group that sends food and aid to Holocaust survivors and other poor in Israel and the former Soviet Union. I trust this group intimately, having known the founder for several years, knowing him to be an upstanding and righteous man.

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So, do something good for a change. Make a donation to Chevrah, even if it’s just few bucks. It will help Holocaust survivors. 

You heard the man.

Quote of the Day: Project Ezekiel

From the Montgomery County Gazette, 'Project Ezekiel' designed to recapture memories of lost souls:

"Dr. Nathan Moskowitz created images of his paternal uncle, Herman Moskovitc, a Holocaust victim who died at age 17, from his uncle's prisoner card after Moskowitz realized he had no photographs or images of him. Out of this experience came Project Ezekiel, which is designed to reconstruct the images of more than 200,000 Holocaust victims with prisoner cards."

"Moskowitz said the project name is based on the prophet Ezekiel, who had lived among Jewish exiles in Babylon after Babylon overtook Judah and Jerusalem, and had foreseen and witnessed the fall of Jerusalem and Israel. In one of his visions, God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones, representing all of Israel. God grows flesh and muscles on the bones and the bodies come to life, representing the resurrection of Israel."

"To me, this is a very fitting analogy," Moskowitz said. "That period of time with the prophecy and vision was very cataclysmic, as was the time of the Holocaust with a lot of dead bones and scattered ashes. Visually you take these dry bones, in this case the dry, decaying words [of the cards], paint skin and muscles onto the bones, and artistically breathe life into them."