By Peijean Tsai
Daily Bruin Contributor
For Jews, today is a day to set aside rallying over the conflict
in the Middle East to focus on one of the most painfully remembered
events in world history.
Today marks Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, honoring the 6
million Jews killed under the orders of Nazi Germany dictator Adolf
Hitler.
A noon prayer at Meyerhoff Park, which will also feature poetry
reading and music, is sponsored by the Hillel Jewish Student Center
in conjunction with the Jewish Student Union.
Nicole Guzik, a third-year Jewish studies student and president
of the Hillel Council, said protesting for the current Middle East
cause on Holocaust Memorial Day would be inappropriate.
“Rallying on this day would be a complete desecration of
the holiday,” she said.
This is one of the only holidays where Jewish people of all
denominations ““ and even non-Jews ““ can come together,
Guzik said.
This year’s commemoration is different because of the
current situation in the Middle East, said Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller, director of the Hillel Council.
“Jews are feeling more vulnerable than they have in a long
time,” he said.
The memorial also compels Jews to think of how they treat others
in light of their own suffering because of the Holocaust, he
said.
The commemoration promotes remembering the victimization of
Jews, but the current situation is one where Jews and Palestinians
are both the “victims and the victimizers,”
Seidler-Feller said.
Rabbi Mychal Rosenbaum, associate director of the Hillel
Council, said that regardless of what is currently going on in the
world, the focus of today should only be the Holocaust.
“It’s difficult to separate what you are feeling
about a current situation with a moment in history,” she
said.
“I urge students to use this day to remember the lives
lost, families torn apart and the suffering because of the memory
of the Holocaust,” she continued.
Darren Wang, internal vice president of the Muslim Student
Association, said Holocaust Memorial Day is a holiday everyone
should learn from.
People today need to “take lessons from history” and
learn from the past, Wang said.