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“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
- Elie Wiesel
The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is Tuesday, April 21. The Museum has designated Never Again: What You Do Matters as the theme for the 2009 observance.
 Women and children survivors in Mauthausen speak to an American liberator through a barbed wire fence. Mauthausen, Austria. May 05, 1945-May 07, 1945. USHMM, National Archives and Records Administration |
Few stories illustrate more powerfully the difference an individual can make in creating a more just and humane world than that of Raphael Lemkin. This year marks 50 years since the death of this Polish-Jewish lawyer who watched from the shores of the United States as the Nazis persecuted and murdered members of his family along with millions of other Jews, solely on the basis of their identity-Winston Churchill described this mass murder as a “crime without a name.” Lemkin was a prominent attorney and an expert in international law working in Warsaw when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. He answered his country’s call for able-bodied men to go eastward in the hopes of forming a new defensive line against Germany, but all hope collapsed when the Soviet Union suddenly occupied eastern Poland. Lemkin escaped to Sweden by way of Lithuania. There he completed arrangements to immigrate to the United States. He began work at Duke University in North Carolina in April 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II.
In 1944, Lemkin became increasingly alarmed as the extent of the destruction of Europe’s Jewish communities became apparent. He was determined to name the crime that had killed his family. He coined the word “genocide” as a first step in his relentless personal drive to help prevent its repetition. Lemkin next conceived the Genocide Convention and wrote its first draft. In the shadow of the Holocaust and in no small part due to his tireless efforts, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. Lemkin did not celebrate but called it “an epitaph on his mother’s grave.” He continued his efforts to prevent genocide until his death of a heart attack in 1959. Many others took up his passion and commitment to prevent genocide. One notable example was the late U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, William Proxmire. Starting in 1967, Senator Proxmire waged a singlehanded campaign to get the Genocide Convention ratified by the U.S. Senate. For 19 years Proxmire made a speech every day that Congress convened-a total of 3,211 speeches-until the Senate ratified the Convention in 1986.
The Holocaust demonstrates one of the greatest lessons about individual responsibility-that each of us has the choice to act or not to act, and that there are consequences to our decisions.
The evidence of this “crime of all crimes” against humanity demonstrates that the Holocaust was not inevitable; it happened because ordinary people became accomplices to the process of targeting groups of people and eventually to mass murder. Whether through sheer indifference or motivated by career advancement, peer approval, or antisemitic prejudice, in the long span between words of hate and the machinery of death at Auschwitz, many had the opportunity to affect the outcome. Neighbors and friends, doctors and judges, businessmen and clergy, educators and policemen and, ultimately, even other governments chose not to act. Legions of others-government workers and professionals-enabled and assisted in the implementation of policies and practices targeting Jews and others.
Remembrance obligates us not only to memorialize those who were killed but also to reflect on what could have been done to save them. Those who survived tell us that as many faced their horrific deaths, their last words were “Remember us. Tell our story.” Survivors promised that they would, and that never again would the world stand silent or look the other way. That was the promise that drove Lemkin’s lifetime of commitment.
The Holocaust reminds us of the fragility of democracy and the need for citizens to be both well-informed and vigilant about the preservation of democratic ideals. An engaged citizenry that embraces the power of the individual to make a difference is the frontline defense for strong, just societies. What we do-or choose not to do-matters.
We believe that Congregation of YHWH, Jerusalem has valid teachings but has a problem in the leadership. Therefore, we have terminated our affiliation until the situation is rectified.
King Ahab of Israel….most often known as Jezebel’s Husband was the namesake for an evil spirit that plagues many men today. They shirk their responsibilities because they are weak and allow women to do their dirty work. These are some of the characteristics of Ahab’s. Are you an Ahab?
1. Ahab was Ambitious. Many men are extremely successful by the world’s standard of life, but weak in the spiritual department. Their wives take the lead.
2. Ahab was opportunistic. Many Ahab’s let someone else ease the pressure by taking care of unpleasant tasks. Have you been inattentive and allowed someone else to take care of things you are supposed to do?
3. Ahab was self-serving. Men with Ahab Spirits neglect family and scriptural matters because of their selfish focus on self, career and the world?
4. Ahab focused on the worldly. In today’s society men are considered successful if they have good jobs, make plenty of money, and provide a nice home. Success is defined solely by material standards.
5. Ahab compromised his beliefs. Men with the Ahab spirit make unholy alliances for earthly gain?
6. Ahab abdicated his spiritual responsibility. Men allow their children to be educated by others, whether it be public schools, church schools, or even the wife alone in home schooling. Yahweh makes parents, fathers specifically, responsible for the training and admonition of their children
7. Ahab ignored evil. Men with the spirit of Ahab refuse to stand against abortion, homosexuality, false doctrines, political correctness, immodest dress, teen sex, immorality, violence, or dishonesty?
8. Ahab had no fear of Yahweh. Men’s lives show fear of their Creator by their actions…not just the words of their mouths.
The way for YHWH’s people to exhibit faith is by living the scripture 24/7 and not compromising or compartmentalizing our beliefs. The good news is that we are given the opportunity to repent from our ways and start afresh. Begin today!
NEW PALESTINIAN LAW: NEGOTIATING JERUSALEM IS AN ACT OF TREASONby Hillel Fendel
The PA legislature has passed the first reading of a law forbidding any concessions in, or even negotiations regarding, Jerusalem.
Ahmed Bahar, a leading Hamas member and the Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Authority parliament, announced Thursday that the body had passed a first reading of a “Jerusalem bill.” The legislation, proposed by Hamas parliament member Ahmed Abu Hilbiya, absolutely bans giving up any part of Jerusalem.
The bill states that Jerusalem, according to its “borders recognized during the period of the Islamic Khalifate,” is “Palestinian, Arab, Islamic land.” It further avers that all of Jerusalem, “including its archaeological sites and the sites that are holy to Islam and Christianity, are waqf (dedicated in sanctity) for Palestinian, Arab and Islamic generations.” This would appear to include not only the Temple Mount, but also the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter, and the City of David.
The new PA bill also states that it is forbidden to discuss, cede, or negotiate over any part of Jerusalem, or hold a referendum on this matter – and that if such negotiations or votes are held, they are null and void in advance. Anyone who violates the above provisions on behalf of the PA will be considered guilty of treason, the bill states, and will be liable to the relevant punishments.
The PA legislature will convene “soon,” Bahar said, to pass the law’s second reading, after which it will be passed on to PA chairman and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas for his signature.
Psalms 137:1-9 There by the rivers of Babylon we sat down; also we wept when we remembered Zion. (2) We hung our lyres on the willows in its midst. (3) For there our captors asked us the words of a song; yea, our plunderers asked joy, saying, Sing to us a song of Zion. (4) How shall we sing the song of YHWH on a foreign soil? (5) If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget; (6) let my tongue cleave to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem above the head of my joy. (7) O YHWH, remember for the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem; who said, Make it bare! Make it bare even to its foundation! (8) O daughter of Babylon, O destroyed one! Blessed is he who shall repay to you your recompence which you dealt to us. (9) Blessed is he who seizes your little ones and dashes them against the stone!
FROM WND’S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Bill poses major obstacle to ‘return’ of ‘lost tribe of Israel’
The Bnei Menashe believe they are descendants of Manasseh, one of biblical patriarch Joseph’s two sons and a grandson of Jacob, the man whose name was changed to Israel. The tribe lives in the two Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, to which they claim to have been exiled from Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian empire. Israeli lawmakers voted earlier this week to take away the interior minister’s power to approve the immigration of groups who claim Jewish descent, instead requiring a vote by the entire Israeli cabinet.Full Story at http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58205
The true children of Israel, astonishing as this may sound, are those who have put their faith in YHWH Elohim of Israel and His only begotten Son Yahshua Messiah.
| Galatians 3:29 | “And if ye be Yahshua ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” |
| Romans 2:28 | “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of Elohim.” |
Non-Jews – Gentiles (the nations) who believe in the Messiah of Israel are, according to the Holy Scriptures, grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel. Even if they are unable to trace their lineage back to Abraham. They become part of the commonwealth of spiritual Israel and thereafter share all the blessings of the chosen race. Paul’s letter to the Romans (chapter 11) makes this fact abundantly clear.
| Romans 11:17 | “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree… 22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of Elohim: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shall be cut off. 23 And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for Elohim is able to graft them in again… 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. “ |
What do these facts mean? They mean exactly what they say: that all true believers in YHWH Elohim of Israel and His Son Yahshua are Israelites and are included in this gracious invitation to become part of the Olive Tree of Israel. As Israelites we rejoice greatly and gladly observe the Feasts of YHWH; the eternal memorials of our salvation!
| Leviticus 23:2 | ” Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them. Concerning the feasts of YHWH, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my Feasts! |
If you are a believer in the Son of the Most High Creator of the Universe, then the invitation to keep His appointed feasts is extended to you. Accept it without delay.
