On #YomHaShoah I think about the Jews of Švihov, whose torn Torah my shul was gifted with. We say Kaddish for them even though, for many of them, their first or full names are lost and we only have a last name or, at worst, birth year.
Only their Torah survived, and that was defaced. The shul is currently working to have it restored. But even when we first received it, almost 2 years ago, we gave it pride of place.
With the Torah comes a mandate to continue to remember the Jews who once revered & taught from it. Who were killed while their scrolls were warehoused by Nazis.
And also to continue to teach the world what hate can do & why people of love & solidarity must ALWAYS intervene.
I've been crying through this whole thread. Our Torah represents a whole village killed, whole families. Some of them were only small children.
This is why my shul takes its anti-racism and anti-hate work so seriously.
At the end of the original thread, I posted a link to our synagogue's website so folks could read more about the town, our scroll, and the #HolocaustTorah program more generally.
That is no longer possible. The site is now members-only because it was spammed by so much anti-Jewish hate.