Never Again: March of the Living Reflections

My name is Sarah Haar and I’m a senior at Donna Klein Jewish Academy.

While learning about this week’s parsha I found many parallels between my trip to Poland and the principles of Kiddush and Chillul Hashem.

On the first day we arrived in Poland, we were granted the opportunity to daven in a boxcar in Lodz. Given that none of us had slept during the nine hour flight, I found it challenging to focus on where we were and what we were doing.

As the mincha service was coming to an end, I decided to close my eyes and focus on the words we were saying.

As we began to sing Aleynu, I found it almost impossible to sing along.

My eyes filled with tears and my heart filled with emotion as I realized where I was; davening in a place where people died Al Kiddush Hashem.

In this week’s parsha we learn in one of the chapters about the several responsibilities of the Kohanim and the extreme care they must take while serving Hashem in the Beit Hamikdash.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks adds that “it was theirs, the Kohanim’s task, to preserve the purity and glory of the Sanctuary as God’s symbolic home in the midst of the nation.”

So too, it is our responsibility, as witnesses of the camps, as human beings, and most importantly as Jews, to preserve the purity and glory of Israel as G-d’s symbolic home, but also our home as well.

We must also continue the Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of G-d’s name, by proving Holocaust deniers wrong, continuing Israel advocacy, and remaining faithful to the Almighty.

I would like to end with this: From my 16 years of Jewish education I was always taught that we were created betzelem elokim, in the image of G-d. The March of the Living connected me to Jews from all walks of life.

Whether Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, or even Atheist, Hitler wanted us all dead simply because we were Jewish. Yet we were able to continue something our grandparents never thought could one day be.

This trip not only proved his hopes to have failed, but unified us as Jews and reassured us that never again means never again!

Sarah Haar, Class of 2016