From MPrival@aol.com Fri May 31 20:52:29 1996 Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 22:11:03 -0400 From: MPrival@aol.com To: HJ@teleport.com Subject: HJ/ Yom Ha-Shoah -------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Yom Ha-Shoah In commemoration of Yom Ha-Shoah, Machar, the Washington D.C. Congregation for Humanistic Judaism will begin it's discussion this week with the following short service. Mike Prival ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- MACHAR HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL SERVICE WASHINGTON CONGREGATION FOR HUMANISTIC JUDAISM ------------------------------------------ LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES Reader 1: We light six candles In Memory of the light of six million people, Extinguished in the Holocaust. Reader 2: We gather today To remember the time of horror, To mourn our dead, To reflect on the innocence and courage of the martyrs. Reader 3: And we reassert our commitment to a world Where all people will live together In peace and justice With kindness, compassion, and charity, With mercy and love. Opening song: HEE-NAY MA TOV Hee-nay ma tov oo-ma na-yeem She-vet a-kheem gam ya-khad. ------------------------------------------- REMEMBRANCE Congregation: As we commemorate the deaths of our six million brothers and sisters, we honor and remember all of the murdered--Jews and gentiles--victims, martyrs, heroes. Reader 4: We honor those who died because they were Jews. We honor those who died because they helped Jews. Those who died because they resisted the Nazis. Those who died because of their ideas and convictions. Those who died simply because the death machine became so huge, so embracing, so arbitrary. Reader 1: Who were the soldiers in this one-sided war against our existence on earth? What was on their minds, what was in their hearts, day after day, week after week, year after year, as they carried out their grim mission? Reader 2: Few recognized the differences at first--even when evidence was presented and eyewitnesses came forward. Congregation: No one wanted to believe it. Not Christian, not Jew. For who can confront the terrible reality of murder without hatred, murder without blame or guilt, murder as government policy, murder as duty. Reader 3: But there are survivors of the Holocaust. We know them. They are the parents whose children are gone, and they are the children without parents. Reader 4: We know them. They are the remnants--no brothers, no sisters, no aunts and uncles, no grandparents, no cousins, no neighbors, no friends. Congregation: We know them, the survivors, because they are part of us, they belong to us. We are all survivors--all members of a single family, haunted by our shared memories. We are all Jews, We mourn together the lost potential of our youth, the dignity of our martyrs-- the murder of innocents. ------------------------------------------- THE JEWISH GHETTO AT LODZ by Harold Black Reader 1: If you choose to die, leap from the upper floor of the cold house, or from the bridge next to the Church of the Blessed Virgin. Or slit your wrists, or wander to the fence where a guard will shoot you, or just lie down on the frozen ground. Reader 2: If you choose to live, there is music to hide the rumbling of your empty stomach. Bronislawa plays her violin in the House of Culture. In soup kitchen no. 2 Stajman the tenor sings. Or you can trade on the black market your last table cloth or sheet for a loaf of bread. Reader 3: But there are times when you do not choose. A notice is tacked to your door. Fate has chosen you to ride the train. ------------------------------------ MOURNING OF OUR DEAD Reader 4: For my days are consumed like smoke And my bones are burned as at a hearth. My hears is smitten like grass and withered For I forget to eat my bread By reason of the voice of my sighing. I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places. I watch and have become like a sparrow That is alone in the housetop. My enemies taunt me all the day. They that are against me do curse me For I have eaten ashes like bread And mingled my drink with my weeping. My days are like a vanishing shadow And I am withered like grass. [Psalm 102] ------------------------------------------- WARSAW GHETTO Reader 1: Me' ayin yavoh ezri Night has fallen. Shall I read the Psalms by the light of the candles and the heads of the dead? Reader 2: Crags of masonry and steel, twisted girders hurl their points, shapes conjured in the minds of devils. I stand on desolation square. Reader 3: Litter of stone, traces of houses, charred prayer books, a broken fork, a housewife's earthen pot, a sole of a shoe, a bill marked "paid". Congregation: With trembling hands I gather the remnants of half-a-million Jews. [Adapted as poetry by Harold Black, 1980, from passages in Ashes and Fire by Jacob Pat.] Reader 1: Let us all stand for a moment of silent meditation. ... Reader 2: I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions. Congregation: And yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think it will all come right, that this cruelty, too will end. And that peace and tranquility will return again. [Anne Frank] --------------------------------------------------- HUMANIST MOURNER'S KADDISH Magnified is the glory of the departed In a world they tried to make better for us all. May their glory be eternally praised Hallowed and extolled, lauded and exulted Honored and revered Adored and admired Beyond all songs and hymns of exaltation Beyond all praise that humankind can utter. May it be so. Let there be abundant peace on earth and life's goodness for humankind. May it be so. May there be peace for all Israel. Amen. [adapted from the traditional Mourners' Kaddish by Harold Black] -------------------------------------------- EXTINGUISHING THE CANDLES Reader 3: We darken six candles In memory of six million Jews Extinguished in the Holocaust. Closing song: SHALOM, SHALOM Everyone: Shalom shalom l'yis-ra-el Shalom shalom la-ah-dahm, Shalom shalom l'yis-ra-el Shalom shalom la-o-lam. Shalom, shalom to Israel Shalom to all humankind, Shalom, shalom to Israel, Shalom to all the world.