Yom Hashoah 2013

Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!


A few reminders:

From the story "The Man With The Package" by Tadeusz Borowski:

 "... as they went off into the gas, the Jews sang a moving song in Hebrew that no one understood."

At Simply Jews, Snoopy has something to say about this song: 

 

And then there is this: 

... global hacker group promised a mass assault to protest Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. The attack appeared timed to coincide with Israel's annual Holocaust memorial day, beginning at sundown Sunday.

The cyber attack was just the latest in an almost constant effort by Israel's enemies and ideological opponents to shut down its vital websites...

An official from the militant Palestinian Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the attackers. "God bless the minds and the efforts of the soldiers of the electronic battle," Ihab Al-Ghussein, Gaza's chief government spokesman, wrote on his official Facebook page. [...]

The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial was among those targeted. Its website was operating fully on the eve of memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust, the time apparently set for the assault."

According to the NYT:  

"The rest of the screen was filled with a message to the government, accusing Israel of having “wronged humanity.” The hackers signed off with the message, “We are Muslims, Soldier of Allah.”"

(Surprise, surprise, look who approves)

__________


"On Waterproofing

Franz Kafka was Jewish. He had a sister, Ottla, Jewish. Ottla married a jurist, Josef David, not Jewish. When the Nuremburg Laws were introduced to Bohemia-Moravia in 1942, quiet Ottla suggested to Josef David that they divorce. He at first refused. She spoke about sleep shapes and property and their two daughters and a rational approach. She did not mention, because she did not yet know the word, Auschwitz, where she would die in October 1943. After putting the apartment in order she packed a rucksack and was given a good shoeshine by Josef David. He applied a coat of grease. Now they are waterproof, he said. " (Anne Carson)