Help! We need more than lip service.

The 20th century has produced astonishing technological, medical, and cultural progress. The human race is advancing at an exponential pace; our knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math, are at an all-time high. More on that in the next post.

But, ironically, this same 20th century that produced so much good also produced the greatest evil. Some 65 years ago, 2/3rds of all Jewish people were murdered by a genocidal, racist madman, engulfing the whole planet in a war, the worst in humanity’s history to date.

It’s puzzling how humanity can be both so advanced, yet so depraved.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance day, and surprising to many, thousands of Holocaust survivors are still alive today. And, if you can believe it, many of them live in abject poverty. It’s pretty freakin’ sad that the people who endured the worst kinds of torture and persecution are the ones still suffering now, while the rest of us live comfortably and securely.

Instead of writing some nice lip service on your Facebook wall about Holocaust Remembrance, how about donating a few bucks to Chevrah Humanitarian? Chevrah is a group that sends food and aid to Holocaust survivors and other poor in Israel and the former Soviet Union. I trust this group intimately, having known the founder for several years, knowing him to be an upstanding and righteous man.

I’m a big believer in, you know, doing things, rather than talking about them. It’s why I’ve been rather quiet on the Blog Theological Battle Front, a war zone which tends to produce lots of discord and virtually zero action.

So, do something good for a change. Make a donation to Chevrah, even if it’s just few bucks. It will help Holocaust survivors.

Dr. Michael Schiffman, a longtime acquaintance who heads Chevrah, writes,

Why is it that we are willing to have solemn assemblies of remembrance while allowing survivors of the worst event in Jewish history to literally starve to death and pass out of this life without even a minimum of assistance we could easily give? 

The sad fact is, it is easier for us to light a candle, or present a rose in memory than to dig into our pockets and help someone still in need. 

For a survivor, its like going to your own funeral and hearing people say nice things about you, while you are alive in your own coffin, and no one seems to realize it. 

An even sadder fact, is that within the next five years, they will all be dead.  The youngest of them are in their 70’s, most are in their 80s.  We are the last generation who will have known actual survivors of the holocaust, and the last generation that will be able to help them.  The Holocaust deniers are already lining up to say it never happened.  What will be when they are all gone; when there is no one left who heard the cries?

He’s right, you know. I just did some googling to check my facts for this blog post, and I was grieved to see, in the top 3 search results, videos intended to persuade viewers the Holocaust never happened.

(Whether blinding evil or astonishing levels of ignorance is responsible, we can’t know. Let those fools see their end.)

But for us, there’s something *good* we can do, right now, for Holocaust survivors. If there ever was a righteous cause for Yeshua’s disciples get behind, this is it: support Holocaust survivors by donating to Chevrah Humanitarian.