The Call of “Never Again”

Years ago, my wife and I had the privilege of spending a week with some of the surviving leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Among them was Simcha “Kazik” Rotem. In the midst of the fighting, 19-year old Kazik was tasked with passing from one part of the Warsaw Ghetto to another and into the Polish side of the city to support the uprising. He then famously snuck back into the burning ghetto through the sewers, ultimately leading survivors out of the ghetto and into the surrounding forest.

I vividly remember one evening when, as a number of us were gathered at a bar, Kazik went around the table, turned to each of us with his piercing stare and asked: “What was the lesson of the Shoah?”

I’ll never forget his answer:

“What happened to the Jewish people means that the Jewish people must fight to make sure that this will never happen again – to any people.”

For Kazik, a man who witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, and who went on to immigrate to pre-state Palestine and fight for the survival of Israel, the lesson of the Shoah was clear: “never again” means not only that the Jewish people must survive; it means that the Jewish people must survive for a purpose, to make sure that nothing like the Holocaust ever takes place again.

There is something special about the duality of his conclusion, and the determination with which he stated it, that I find particularly appropriate for all of us at NIF. Israel was the refuge for so many Jews in the wake of the Holocaust. But it can and must be more than just a refuge. It can and must be a just society that lives up to the values that the Jewish people have cherished over millennia.

On this Yom HaShoah, let us recommit ourselves to building a safe, liberal, and democratic Israel, and ensuring that Kazik’s words are never forgotten. Let us support those Israelis working both to secure Israel’s future, and to help it shine with the best of our Jewish and democratic values.