A Holocaust Haggadah to help preserve memory

The idea of a Holocaust Haggadah is fabulous; we have a Tu’B’ Shevat Seder Haggadah, why not one on the Holocaust — especially since Yom HaShoah occurs within a week after Passover ends?  Historically, the Passover Haggadah provided a practical template how to convey the meaning of Passover; Rabbi Rosenberg’s Holocaust Haggadah aims to create a practical syllabus on how to make the Holocaust relevant to the themes of Passover and redemption.

For the children of Holocaust survivors (like myself), we must find new and creative ways to preserve the sacredness of Jewish memory. This is similar to the way the retelling of Passover serves to challenge new generations with the seminal thoughts since the time when the traditional observance of Passover ceased with the destruction of the Temple.

Rabbi Rosenberg invites his readers to keep the memories and the stories of Holocaust victims eternally fresh and relevant—especially at a time when the schools in Europe and in the United States are teaching less and less about this traumatic period of history.

In his Introduction, Rabbi Rosenberg raises the question: “Why was there not a mass exodus from Europe when they knew that the Nazi occupation spelled death for the Jewish people living in Europe?”

He answers:

Many Holocaust survivors have told me that the invasion of the Nazis and the annihilation of the Jewish population was like a tsunami. It happened so fast that there was no time to think, to flee, or to leave, where would they go? There were quotas and anti-Semitism throughout the world. They thought it would all pass, just like other instances of anti-Semitism that had occurred in the past. They believed Hitler would never have enough power or support to annihilate German Jewry. They were wrong and it cost them their lives. In addition, how does one leave behind family members while escaping to freedom, even if they could? (P. 9)

Rabbi Rosenberg’s pictures of his family reminded me of the photos I saw from my father’s family who perished in the death camps. The stories of the survivors never cease to amaze how fortunate and lucky so many people were. Their stories need to be told and retold again and again.

In our modern age, where we are witnessing Iran’s ambition to create a nuclear bomb to threaten Israel’s existence, Rabbi Rosenberg reminds us that we must take mad-men’s words to destroy the Jewish people seriously. If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? And if not now, when?

The entire book contains wonderful spiritual stories about our people’s survival that need to be retold:

We begin our service in the remembrance of the Holocaust in silence. Let us surround our worship, our community in prayer, with silence in preparation for the Presence of God… Silence does not just bring to standstill words and noise. Silence is more than the temporary renunciation of speech. It is a door opening before prayer, toward the realms of the spirit and the heart. Silence is the beginning of reckoning of the soul, the prelude to an account of the past and the consideration of the present. May our shared silence lead us to an awareness of a time of total evil that degraded our most precious values, the very meaning of religious existence, and life itself. Our silence requires us to  a committed accounting for other silences that accepted persecutions and were indifferent to debasement and crime for there was a time when silence was a crime . . .

The book is full of these kinds of pithy but beautiful readings from the many people who participated in Rabbi Rosenberg’s Haggadah Project. The material consists of poems, articles, personal reflections and family anecdotes, and stories — all of which help us retell the Holocaust for future generations. The book integrates these pearls of wisdom with the traditional text of the Passover story.

School teachers, rabbis, Sunday school teachers, and people who are simply curious about the Holocaust will find this book illuminating.

Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista, California.