Holocaust Remembrance Day
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During April, Jewish people and non-Jews around the globe are observing Holocaust Remembrance Day, which in Hebrew is called Yom Hashoah, The Shoah (literally whirlwind) is the Hebrew name given to the Holocaust by the Jewish community.
The modern observance was established in Israel in 1959 on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. Nissan is the same month in which we celebrate Passover! The Israeli Knesset chose this date to especially commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which took place from April 19 to May 16, 1943.
This month is a reminder of the incomprehensible tragedy that fell upon the children of Israel. It is a very personal and emotional day for me, as I am part of the immediate post-Holocaust generation of Jewish people. Many of my friends are the children of survivors! I am not, but the events of the Holocaust profoundly impacted both my family and my wife’s family. Growing up, I visited my grandparents’ home almost every week, where pictures hung on the walls of relatives I would never meet because they died in the Shoah.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
I went to visit Auschwitz for the first time some years ago. As I walked through the restored Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp located near Oświęcim, Poland, I was moved beyond words by the horrors of the inhumane treatment the Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It was a very raw experience. But I was not prepared for what I saw looking at a sampling of suitcases gathered by Nazis and exhibited for all to see.
As I slowly paced through this section, I came face-to-face with a bright red suitcase with the name Margarete Glaser emblazoned on its front! I later found out that Margarete was German and born on July 6, 1888. Direct relative or not, we shared the same last name. Reading about the Holocaust, looking at family pictures, listening to lectures, or even watching graphic movies would never be the same for me. The Holocaust would forever be deeply personal. I bonded with my greater Jewish family at that moment—all six million—in a way that I had never done before.
There is also a way to look up the name of a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust on the Holocaust Museum website. I discovered that there were 2,878 Glasers listed who died in the Shoah. We also know that this online list is not complete, and there are many others included at the Holocaust Museum itself. Simply horrifying!
Where Was God?
I continue to ask myself how God could allow this to happen to His chosen people. I still find this question impossible to answer. I must trust that the God who created and called the Jewish people is loving and just. The Holocaust will always challenge my faith, but at least I know that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, understands unjust suffering better than I ever will! And He loved and trusted His heavenly father, as do I.
The horror we should experience, along with the lessons we might learn from the tragedy, is essential for believers in Jesus to understand for a variety of reasons. Jesus, of course, was Jewish, as were all the writers of the New Testament, except for Luke. Christians love the Old Testament and recognize this ancient tome as the Word of God, and of course, the Old Testament is the story of the Jewish people, written by Jewish people. Gentile believers in Jesus are grafted into the rich root of the olive tree and share in the nourishment of the Abrahamic root, a reference to the covenant God made with Abraham (Romans 11:17–24). And, as Jesus said so plainly in John 4:22, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
I like to tell my Jewish family and friends that true Christians love the Jewish people and consider themselves “covenant cousins.” There is a somewhat mysterious and close relationship between born-again believers and the Jewish people that is hard to explain, but true. Thank God for the many ways Jesus-followers show love and grace to their Jewish friends and neighbors and especially for the prayers offered for the peace of Jerusalem that is desperately needed today.
The Devil’s Doing
I cannot tell you how often the Holocaust is brought up by family and friends as the reason they cannot believe in Jesus! Unfortunately, the everyday impression Jewish people have of Christianity is that it is hostile to the Jewish people, in part because of the horrors of the Holocaust. Finding ways to practically show love for Jewish people and supporting Israel’s concerns serves as a counterweight to this false understanding of the gospel that you and I know to be true.
I believe this is the Devil’s doing, without exempting the perpetrators of responsibility! I can see the Satanic strategy in play (Ephesians 6:12, 16). If Jewish people view the gospel as anti-Jewish and see Christians as not caring about the Jewish people at best or who are even generally antisemitic, then the work of bringing the gospel to the Jewish people is severely hindered. But, if we can show the opposite to be true, that sincere Christians love the Jewish people, then our testimony among the Jewish people will be all the more powerful!
I thank God for every believer who shares the good news with their Jewish friends. Admittedly this is not always viewed as an act of love. But, as a Messianic Jew, I know that when a Gentile believer tells a Jewish friend about the Messiah, the intentions are good and pure. I understand that this compulsion to share the gospel comes from a heart of love in obedience to the command of Scripture to reach all people and the mandate in Romans 1:16, that the gospel should go to the Jew first!
We are Partners in the Gospel
It is so important to me and the Chosen People Ministries staff family that you partner with us in sharing the gospel with Jewish people. We want to encourage you to love the Jewish people and to share His love through the Messiah Jesus with your friends and family. Your Mission to the Jewish People wants to help you by providing some excellent resources.
Please take a look at our web site, archive.chosenpeople.com, as there are some great tools and practical information that can be used to understand the Jewish people better and will equip you to present Jesus lovingly and sensitively to the Jewish people in your life.
And please join me in praying for the many elderly Holocaust survivors alive today in Israel and other places and with whom we are sharing the gospel day in and day out!
You can help through your prayers and support in this urgent task— there is not a lot of time left for these precious Jewish people. There is some essential information that will enable you to join us in observing Holocaust Remembrance Day in the rest of the newsletter, and I hope and pray that you will find it helpful!
Yours in the name of the One who will wipe away every tear!
Dr. Mitch Glaser
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