This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן לַשּׁוֹאָה וְלַגְּבוּרָה (Yom HaZikaron laShoah v’laG’vurah, “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day”), Holocaust Remembrance Day in the State of Israel (27 Nisan). (To avoid being adjacent to Shabbat, observance of the day is moved to 26 Nisan if 27 Nisan falls on a Friday. If 27 Nisan falls on a Sunday, the day is moved to 28 Nisan.) The civic memorial day commemorates the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959. If you have composed a prayer or prayer-poem for a Holocaust Remembrance Day, or specifically for Yom haShoah, please share it here. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 April 2003. . . .
A prayer for the victims of the Holocaust in Hebrew with English, Romanian, and Ukrainian translations. . . .
The most traumatic event in recent Jewish history is the Holocaust. At this time, the survivors of the camps are aging, and in the lifespan of people alive today it is likely that the last survivor will die. We say we must never forget what happened during the Holocaust, but if we think of it as a tragedy that happened to our ancestors we will forget. But it has been 3000 years since the Exodus from Egypt, and the Haggadah keeps its history vivid and alive. We are taught that in each and every generation we are to think of ourselves as having been slaves in Egypt. May it be that just as we never forgot the wonders of the Exodus, so too we never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, and continue to strive that such horrors may never happen again until all live in freedom and peace. . . .
There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday). . . .
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