Passover is just a week away — the spring holiday of new beginnings. For Jews, a new beginning always dovetails a previous episode. We are conflicted by hope for the future, and also harsh memories. Passover is one of those memorial days that evokes both, especially due to its proximity to Yom HaShoah, a week later. On both, we stop to reflect on the afflictions of our ancestors.

The Yellow Candle Project is a special way to cherish the memories of the victims of the Holocaust. Since its inception in 1981 by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, the project has spread to synagogues and Jewish communities around the world. It is a reminder of the Yellow Star that Jews were forced to wear. In keeping with the 24 hours of mourning on Yom HaShoah, the candle, too, will burn for 24 hours. Please join us on Zoom on April 17, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, when all of us will light our candles, in our homes, at the same time, in solidarity.

We assume that people know about the Holocaust and the evil that hate and intolerance produce. In the words of Elie Wiesel, “The Holocaust was a war against the Jews, but it was also a war against humanity. That is why the Holocaust must concern us all.” Another way to honor the victims and survivors is to visit a Holocaust museum. This year, our shul will donate all proceeds from the Yellow Candle Project to Greenport High School, which will use the funds to transport 10th-grade students to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. This is a noble cause for education.

On January 25 of this year, a few organizations came together to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center in Glen Cove, NY.  It was a sign of interfaith solidarity, bringing together clergy of all faiths across Long Island. Dr. Don Russo offered a personal reflection on the importance of education. He told us that as a Catholic educator, he still asked himself, what do I know of Jews?  “It was not until the experience of one event that my eyes were opened,” he said, “that my understanding of Jews changed forever. I remember spending four hours on my first visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.  The silence…and the listening within that deep silence.”

Part of the Glen Cove event was a tour of the museum. Even though I’ve visited Holocaust museums throughout my life, I always learn something new. This time, I learned one of the most gruesome details I’d ever encountered. I learned that the 1.5 million children who perished, represented 90% of the Jewish children who lived in Europe at the time. Imagine. We tend to think about the number of adults who were murdered. But the “final solution,” similar to Pharaoh’s edict in ancient Egypt, attacked the Jewish future through the children. My visit to Yad Vashem’s children’s museum last month in Jerusalem was yet more grim.

With the rise of antisemitism across our own nation and throughout the world today, we are reminded once again that not forgetting is not a choice.

I thank the Sisterhood and the Men’s Club of Congregation Tifereth Israel for organizing this important event. The key is education. The Yellow Candle Project serves as a reminder that the Holocaust was not a tragedy of just the Jewish people but, as Elie Wiesel pointed out, it was a tragedy for all of humanity. The Yellow Candle Project is a way to bring together people of all faiths and all backgrounds to remember the victims of the Holocaust, and to pledge to work toward a more peaceful, free, and tolerant world.

—Rabbi Gadi Capela