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Mid-Ohio Valley Interfaith: Responding to intolerance and cruelty

For those of faith, the month of January is a time for reflection, celebration, reconciliation, and especially — remembrance and action.

January begins with the New Year Holiday, and the Shinto religion marks itsGantan-sai with prayers for inner renewal, prosperity, and health. With Twelfth Night and Epiphany on Jan. 5-6, Christians continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus and manifestations of his divine nature, such as the adoration of the three magi.

In mid-month, to promote understanding among people of faith, Christians observe a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25), and on World Religion Day (January 20) Baha’is celebrated with others the common roots of their faiths.

On January 27, the month ends on a somber note with the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. This day of remembrance was established in 2005 by the United Nations General Assembly.

It honors those who were deliberately desecrated and murdered by Nazis in Germany and German-occupied areas of Europe before and during World War II, especially the years 1941-45. The day also commemorates the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi concentration and death camp in Poland.

We now know victims of the Holocaust (or Shoah) number at least 11 million. Records indicate six million victims were people of the Jewish faith, but the larger total includes Romani gypsies (270,000), Soviet prisoners of war (3,300,000), civilian non-Jewish Poles and Slavs (2,000,000), people with disabilities or differences (265,000), priests and Jehovah’s Witnesses, trade unionists, resisters, and protesters. Even the larger number does not include all those who survived but with lives deeply impacted by events of that time.

The United Nations resolution of 2005 also established support for educational programs so that such a genocide would never occur again. The logo for this outreach program features the words “Remembrance and Beyond,” the UN symbol (globe with two olive branches), barbed wire, and two white roses. The barbed wire stands for the pain and suffering of those imprisoned in the concentration camps; the white roses represent peace, freedom, and remembrance.

Beyond remembrance, we have a responsibility to inform ourselves about this tragedy. In 2017, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres explained: “It would be a dangerous error to think of the Holocaust as simply the result of the insanity of a group of criminal Nazis. On the contrary, the Holocaust was the culmination of millennia of hatred, scapegoating and discrimination targeting the Jews, what we now call anti-Semitism.”

Two moving accounts by survivors I recommend are Night by Elie Wiesel and Four Perfect Pebbles by Marion Blumenthal Lazan and Lila Perl. For additional suggestions, check out “46 Powerful Books about the Holocaust” by Jess Kibler at www.bookbub.com and “10 Essential Books about the Holocaust That You Didn’t Read in Class” at www.airshipdaily.com.

Beyond remembrance, we have a duty to act with moral courage. As Elie Wiesel said: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Beyond remembrance, we have an obligation to walk humbly in our faith and to treat our neighbors – all our neighbors — with fairness, kindness, and respect.

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Mid-Ohio Valley Interfaith seeks to cultivate a welcoming and inclusive community whose members are knowledgeable and appreciative of diverse faith traditions and their cultural contexts. Please visit us on Facebook at Mid Ohio Valley Interfaith to learn of resources and upcoming events.

Calendar of Holy Days for January 2019 from http://www.interfaith-calendar.org

1 – Mary, Mother of God – Catholic Christian

Feast Day of St Basil – Orthodox Christian

Gantan-sai – Shinto

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus – Orthodox Christian

5 – Twelfth Night – Christian

Guru Gobindh Singh birthday – Sikh

6 – Epiphany – Christian

Feast of the Epiphany (Theophany) – Orthodox Christian

Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) – Christian

Nativity of Christ – Armenian Orthodox

7 – Feast of the Nativity – Orthodox Christian

8 – Feast of the Holy Family – Catholic Christian

13 – Maghi – Sikh

Baptism of the Lord Jesus – Christian

17 – Blessing of the Animals – Hispanic Catholic Christian

18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Christian

20 – World Religion Day – Baha’i

Tu BiShavat – Jewish (celebration of coming of spring)

21-23 – Mahayana New Year – Buddhist

25 – Conversion of St. Paul – Christian

27 – International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

*also Yom HaShoah on 27th day of Nisan, May 1-2, 2019 – mourning to mark day of

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

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Martha McGovern, a retired educator, is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Interfaith.

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