views guest column On Tisha b’Av, Remember Th e Holocaust W e are in the Jewish month of Av, a month of mourning for Jewish people. In the month of Av, we remember the many tragedies that have Michael Weiss happened to us. More Special to the than 2,000 years ago Jewish News on the ninth of Av, the first and second Beit HaMikdash, our holy temples, were destroyed, burned with the holy objects to the ground. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were killed by the Romans. We were driven from our holy country, Israel, which God Himself gave to our forefa- thers Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He gave it to us, the Jewish people. Then we were driven out from our holy city, from Jerusalem. More than 2,000 years ago, King David built Jerusalem, establishing it as the capital of Israel. His son, King Solomon, built the first Beit HaMikdash, the holy tem- ple, on Mount Moriah. Today, we have another time to remember and to mourn what hap- pened in our generation, what the world calls the Holocaust; the survivors call it Churban Shlishi. Just as we teach and remember the destruction of the Holy Temples on Tisha b’Av, we must teach and remember the Holocaust, the Shoah, the Churban Shlishi. The Holocaust was no less a national Jewish tragedy than the destruction of the Holy Temples. Thousands of Jewish communities and thousands upon thou- sands of synagogues and shtiebel (small religious prayer rooms) were destroyed and burned in the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of Torah scrolls were burned. Six million people, including 1.5 million children, were murdered in gas chambers and then burned in the cre- matoria. The 6 million kedoshim, mar- tyrs, never had a funeral or a grave. They were our fathers, mothers and children: our future generations. Nobody said the Kaddish prayer for them; nobody sat shivah for them. There are tens of thou- sands of families from which no family members survived to remember them. That’s why the 6 million holy nesham- ot (souls) of the Shoah must be remem- bered by Jewish communities. For this, we need the continued support and attendance at our Yizkor services from generations around the world. We want to say thank you to God for helping us to come to this country. It felt like coming from hell to heaven. America gave us a home when had none, when we were homeless and had nothing and nobody. America embraced us when we were rejected by the whole world. It gave us a feeling that we belonged. We the Jewish people, we the Holocaust survivors, will remember the Shoah forever. We hope and pray that God’s justice will someday punish each and every one of those responsible for murdering his holy people. • Michael Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, is a speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Cente in Farmington Hills and author of the book Chimneys and Chambers. commentary It’s Time To Return To Civility T Yiddish Limerick Tisha b’Av Mir Hobn farlorn undzer Bais HaMikdash, even di tzvay So mir vel gedaykn un fastn un Lamentations we will say. On the floor mir vel zitzn Mir dertzayln nisht vitzn Dos is Tisha b’Av, so sad is the day. Mir hobn farlorn: we have lost Undzer Bais HaMikdash: our Temple Di tzvay: the two Mir vel gedaynkn: we will remember Un fastn: and fast Mir vel zitzn: we will sit Mir dertzayln nisht vitzn: we don’t tell jokes Dos is Tisha b’Av: it’s the 9th of Av By Rachel Kapen Need Computer Skills in the Comfort of Your Home? R.C.S. Consulting, LLC Reliable Computer Services Consulting Providing Customized Training Suitable to Your Needs Can Teach Basic to Advance Skills “>ˆÊ­/iÝÌÊ>ÃÃ>}ˆ˜}Ê>Ãœ®ÊÊUÊÊ-œVˆ>Êi`ˆ>Ê­>ViLœœŽ]Ê9œÕ/ÕLi]ÊiÌV°® -Ê"vwÊViÊÊUÊÊ1̈ˆâˆ˜}Ê`ˆvviÀi˜ÌÊ7iLÊ ÀœÜÃiÀÃÊÊUÊÊ7iLÊ-i>ÀV Alla Harris (248) 470-8093 Available anytime from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM 8 July 19 • 2018 jn he toxic level of divisiveness in American politi- cal life today is driving families and friends apart and hurting our country. The hateful- ness and intolerance Robert Schostak that fuel it must be called out wherever they appear. Let’s stop looking for someone to blame and start looking in the mirror! It showed up in our own commu- nity when the board of the Franklin Hills Country Club voted to cancel a scheduled fundraiser for Lena Epstein, a Jewish woman running for the open seat in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, indicating that they did so because she openly supports President Trump. Many of us were appalled when we learned that the country club canceled Lena’s fundraiser at the last minute in reaction to hateful comments and the threat of protests by a non-member living outside the community. We have hosted political fundraisers at Franklin and other country clubs over many years supporting conservative political thinking and never had an experience like this. Franklin Hills Country Club was founded in the 1920s by Jews who no doubt experienced discrimination against Jews by employers, universities, clubs and other organizations that was common at that time. It is shocking that this type of political bias against Lena (who along with her family are longtime members of Franklin Hills) was supported by the current board. This incident was widely reported in the national media. It is embarrass- ing for the club, our community and our state. More to the point, it accom- plished nothing except to increase the negative activity going on in politics. We have entered a sobering period of the Jewish calendar — the three weeks leading up to Tisha b’Av, the day of destruction and desolation for the Jewish people. The sages of the Talmud say the Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred. When friends and neighbors turn on one another and engage in hateful rhetoric and name-calling, we all must pause and think. We cannot let anger, hate and intolerance drive the day. I worry that if our community leaders and our political leaders endorse this kind of behavior, the damage done to our country will be severe and multi- generational. It’s time to return to civility, to seeing the humanity of the people we disagree with, to acting like grownups — let’s look in the mirror and remember who we are — and to showing respect for our fellow Americans and the amazing country we are all privileged to share. • Robert Schostak serves on the Board of Directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition and is a for- mer chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.