Remarks at Holocaust Remembrance Service at Temple Beth-El Las Cruces on May 1, 2019

   At the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center Holocaust commemoration this past Sunday held at Temple Mount Sinai, they showed photos and read names of Holocaust survivors who have lived in our two communities.   They mentioned Nathan and Lea Weiselman, who both died a number of years ago after making a great impact on our community, and, also, Helen Gluck, who still lives here in Las Cruces.   Helen is a survivor of Auschwitz who, when she went back to her home in Czechoslovakia after the war, knocked on the door and was greeted with contempt by the new inhabitants, who told her that Hitler didn’t go a good enough job if she was still alive.   She went to a Displaced Persons camp, where she met her husband-to-be Morris Gluck. Morris’ brother Bernard already owned a clothing store on Main Street here in Las Cruces at that time.  Eventually, Helen and Morris found their way here and made Las Cruces home. 

   We gather tonight in the aftermath of an unfortunate continuation of the hatred that the Nazis turned into systematic murder and genocide.   The shootings at the Chabad Center in Poway, California and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were perpetrated by individuals whose ideas echo the very antisemitism that was institutionalized in Nazi Germany.  These attackers dehumanized, in their minds, the good people praying in those two Jewish congregations.  The recent attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand and the churches in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday demonstrate a horrifying cascade of hatred and dehumanization turned into bloodshed.   One hatred seems to feed another. 

    But so can love and understanding cascade among us.   Holocaust Remembrance services were, for a long time, Jewish community gatherings.  The creation of State Holocaust Commissions, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reminds us that antisemitism is often at the core of a wide-ranging ideology that threatens more than Jewish communities, because it can lead to disdain and prejudice against almost anyone who is different than the majority.  

    That is why we must learn from and with each other, listen to each other, and allow our spirits to become one.   May this time tonight draw us closer to the One who created us, who sustains our lives, and who gives us love, strength, blessing and hope.