Dear Friends,
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel and I wanted to share what I wrote on facebook this morning.
When I was about 15 years old, I went to the Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington D.C., and it was the first time that I was truly
touched by the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust. Not just Jews,
but all manner of people from different backgrounds and beliefs and
professions, who were deemed "inferior" and a threat. I remember feeling
helpless and overwhelmed with sadness that I didn't really know how to
process.
Being 15, and being obsessed with posters, I bought a
poster that was a composite of many small pictures and newspaper
clippings that created a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, with this quote:
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent
human misery rather than avenge it?"
This poster is still hanging up in my house in Wisconsin and her words still touch me.
On this somber day, let us not only remember the victims of atrocities
past, but to honor their lives and deaths by living our own lives fully
and with compassion. Every creature on this earth deserves love and
respect.
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will
act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" -Eleanor Roosevelt,
1946
Wishing you love and peace,
Daniella
