This past week we have seen more comparisons of the Holocaust with the government response to the COVID health crisis entering the public discourse in our own province of Alberta. This is abhorrent and a stark reminder of the need for our collective vigilance to combat hate and ensure that we continue to educate about the Holocaust.
The Holocaust Education Committee has created a deeply moving, virtual commemoration that will premiere on April 8 at 7 p.m., in honour of Yom Hashoah. You can register for Legacy: Keeping the Flame Alive to receive the link so that we can all watch together from the safety of our homes. Local Holocaust Survivors and their families are featured as they pass the torch of remembrance through the generations to ensure that their legacy and lessons of survival are not forgotten.
Remembering and educating are the focal points of our Passover Seder when we retell the story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt. In his book, The Telling, Mark Gerson claims that the Haggadah has all the lessons needed in life (!) and explains how Moses was brilliant for predicating the future of the Jewish people on the questions of the children. May we all find the child within to continue to question and perhaps find new, unexpected answers. While we might have to work hard to find an answer for ‘Why is this night different from all other nights?’ (since we have been home for 365 of them), our collective future can be about more than just making the tradition survive.
Last year we innovated by adapting seders to Zoom. We continue to adapt and evolve, and together our community can thrive as we continuously seek opportunities to innovate and collaborate. Our own BBYO teens are passing their knowledge to the PJ Our Way kids in an interactive program of games and Kahuts on March 30 at 7 p.m.
As you clear your homes of chametz and consider what hospitality means in an era of public health restrictions, please keep our upcoming food drive in mind. On April 11, Good Deeds Day, we can ensure that ‘all who are hungry can come and eat’ with our community wide food drive. While we can not welcome the stranger to our home this year, we can bring hospitality to them instead. As a community, we can fulfill this mitzvah together when we fill the Edmonton Food Bank truck at the Federation offices.
Until then, I wish you a Shabbat Shalom and a Chag Pesach Sameach.
Stacey