One penny at a time
You get twenty-two eighth graders together every week for Sunday School, and something special is bound to happen eventually. One Sunday, my friend and I came up with a plan, a plan that seemed crazy. We, as an eighth grade class at Temple Beth Or, wanted to raise six million pennies to honor the over six million Jews who died during the Holocaust. We were fortunate enough to have a survivor come and speak to us the week prior, and this plan became our way to say thank you: thank you to all who fought in resistance against the fascist Nazi regime; thank you to the strong who persevered amidst the conditions of the Holocaust; thank you to all of the survivors who found it in their role to speak out against indifference and injustice that continues to permeate our world.
Unfortunately, the stories of genocides do not end at the atrocities of the Holocaust. In fact, it had just started. Mass killings progressed in places like Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur, places in which a group was targeted due to their connection with a religion, race, political ideology, physical handicap, or belief. It is decreed in the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Yet, there are too many examples of the human race turning on one another, killing millions of people in an attempt to claim superiority. Today, we are faced with events that push worldwide peace further away almost daily. The United States’ recent recognition of ISIS committing genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria shows the ever increasing importance to commemorate genocides in our world. Our goal is to bring a vision of peace one step closer through the awareness of genocide victims.
Here we are, mere days from Duke University’s 24-hour name reading ceremony, the genesis of the #TogetherWeRemember campaign. This event promotes genocide awareness through the reading of the names of victims, all as a reminder of what genocide really means. Genocide means hatred and death. We say the names of the victims with a heavy heart, as they were forced to succumb to the powers of those who believed that these victims were inferior.
Tomorrow, when I read these names, I will say them with passion, thought, and purpose. With each name I say, I will become an activist in an effort to end genocide. With each second I stand, I will stand for those who are no longer able to stand. With each second I look out, I will envision the person’s name who made it on our list. How did they die? What were their last thoughts? How old were they when genocide became a cause of death?
Five years later, our penny project is yet to reach six thousand pennies. But now I know that this project was not about the pennies. It was about the recognition, the recognition that there was a Holocaust, and that there are victims to commemorate. Here, we read names to commemorate the victims of genocide and the effect that they will have forever. We read names in the hopes that awareness will lead to prevention. And me? I read names to connect to the living and the dead simultaneously, to make sure that their lives and sacrifice matter today, tomorrow, and forever.
Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya’aseh shalmon aleynu, ve’al kol yisrael ve’imru amen.
S/he who makes peace up high, may he make peace upon all of us. And upon all of Israel. And to that we say, Amen.
When will all inflictors of hatred and genocide hear this prayer for peace?
