Published: 11/8/2020 6:30:08 AM
On Nov. 9 and 10, Jewish communities around the world will remember Kristallnacht, “The Night of Broken Glass,” when Nazi Stormtroopers and civilians swept through Nazi Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland, attacking Jewish owned businesses, community buildings, and synagogues in 1938.
As the smoke from the attacks cleared, the streets were littered with shards of glass from the windows that had been smashed (hence the name Kristallnacht). The authorities stood by and did nothing to halt the destruction.
By the end of the pogrom, 7,000 businesses had been damaged or destroyed, 267 synagogues had been demolished, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Historians estimate that hundreds of Jewish men died – as direct victims of the violence, due to injuries suffered during their incarceration, or due to suicide after arrests.
Kristallnacht marks what many historians view as the beginning of the Holocaust.
How can we remember and respond to Kristallnacht? The events of 2020 call on us to come together not simply to remember, but to stand against hatred in all its forms.
This year, churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship around the world have been invited to participate in a global campaign of unity called “Let There Be Light.” This statement of unity is organized by the International March of the Living, a group that has, for the last 30 years, brought Jews and non-Jews together to Poland to visit concentration camps and learn from and in remembrance of the Holocaust.
To join “Let There Be Light,” Temple Beth Jacob is inviting all of New Hampshire’s religious institutions to join with synagogues, mosques, churches, and other houses of worship from around the world by leaving their exterior and interior lights on throughout the days and nights of Nov. 9 and 10. Together, we can illuminate our state and our world with the message of acceptance, understanding, and peace. To learn more, visit kristallnacht.motl.org/#contact.
Individuals, too, can help spread the message of “Let There Be Light.”
If and when you are asked why your house of worship is lit up, please teach about Kristallnacht.
Sadly, houses of worship are not immune from those who carry out acts of violence against those who may be different from the perpetrators, as has been made clear by the attacks on the Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, and the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice. Thus, it remains incumbent on each and every one of us to do what we can to be points of light, and to illuminate the darkness which too often threatens our world.
(Robin Nafshi is the rabbi at Temple Beth Jacob in Concord.)
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