DESIGNS IN DECORATOR WOOD
& LAMINATES, LTD.

spirit

essay

This Yom
Kippur,
We Must
Remember

Y

It Doesn't Have
To Cost A Fortune…
Only Look Like It!

Complete kitchen and bathroom remodeling

as well as furniture design and installations

including granite, wood and other materials.

Lois Haron Allied Member ASID
248.851.6989

2152700

FALL PERIMETER INSECT CONTROL

WE TREAT BOX ELDER BEETLES
LADYBUGS
CLUSTER FLIES
PLUS

MANY MORE….

INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR
RODENT CONTROL

(248) 585-2600

Family owned and operated since 1900

Over 100,000 satisfi ed customers since 1900

38

September 28 • 2017

jn

2201620

om Kippur is the holiest
the Holocaust years, most European
holiday in the Jewish calendar.
countries betrayed our people. Quite
Especially this year, when Yom
a few of them were active participants
Kippur is on Saturday. We
in the murder of six million
go the synagogue to pray.
martyrs. All that is left of
Men dress in a white kittel
Jewish life in Europe is ashes
(linen burial robe) as a sign
soaked in Jewish blood and
of purity and a reminder of
Jewish cemeteries.
mortality. On Yom Kippur,
But, if we examine what
we ask God to forgive the
happened after our liberation,
sins we committed during
after the Shoah, we’ll forever
the year.
dominate Jewish history by the
Michael Weiss
I remember my father,
miracle, by the fantastic transi-
God bless his soul, when
tion of misery and suffering to
he kept the yahrtzeit for his
new heights of pride.
father, who was killed in the
The emergence of the State
first World War. He lit one
of Israel is God’s answer to
yahrtzeit candle. Now, I keep yahrtzeit the German design of Jewish extinc-
for six million martyrs killed during
tion (God forbid). Within a short
the Holocaust. I always debate with
time after the big disaster, we, the
myself how many candles do I have to Jewish people, established our own
light for six million martyrs.
country, what God gave thousands
Over 70 years ago, I was liberated
of years ago to the Jewish people.
from Buchenwald by the American
There is a definite connection coming
Army led by General Patton. Three-
from Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and
thousand years ago, God sent Moses
Majdanek to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and
and his brother Aaron to take his chil- Israel, to our own God-given country.
dren out of Egypt from slavery. In May
As the years pass, memories fade
1945, God sent the American Army
and our survivor numbers continue
(the Allied Army) to take his children
to decline. It is of the utmost impor-
out of Europe’s death camps. If our
tance that the world never forgets.
liberators would have arrived seven
To remember, we urge the entire
or eight months later, not one of us
Jewish community to attend an
would have survived because all of us
important and inspirational event at
were very sick, dead people walking … 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Hebrew
skin and bone.
Memorial Park Cemetery at Gratiot
In General Patton’s unit, there
and 14 Mile Road in Clinton Township.
was a Jewish chaplain named Rabbi
It’s the Holocaust Yizkor Service of
Schechter. In our thoughts, he was
the United Jewish Organization of
an angel sent from God to pray with
First, Second and Third Generation of
us … He cried with us … sang with us
Holocaust Survivors.
… danced with us. Yes, it was over 70
I wish the entire community a
years ago we were liberated from the
happy and blessed new year. May God
premeditated murder camps, but this inscribe each and every one of us in
liberation was too late for six million
the Book of Life.
martyrs. It came too late for our par-
And, please, remember to light a
ents, our families. It came too late for
yahrtzeit candle in memory of the six
our 1.5 million children.
million martyrs. May this kindness
I always say the bad people did it;
be a source of merit for you and your
but my question is: What were the
family. •
good people doing (including the
Michael Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, is a
Western countries)? Maybe some of
speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Center,
us could have escaped, but the bor-
Farmington, and author of the book Chimneys
ders were closed to us in America,
and Chambers.
in England and in Palestine. During