Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel it is called Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah, Day (of Remembrance of) the Holocaust and Heroism. It has been 80 years. This column concludes with a request. Three months ago, on January 27, we marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army. The hardened Russian soldiers, accustomed to seeing terrible things in battle, were shocked to see how horrifically the Nazis treated the Jewish inmates. Nine days ago, on April 15, we marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the British 11th Armored Division. Sixty thousand prisoners—starved and near death—were discovered. Thirteen thousand bodies lay unburied. Just four days earlier, U.S. forces from the 6th Armored Division entered Buchenwald. On May 7, 1945, German armed forces surrendered unconditionally. How do we collectively and properly observe a holiday dedicated to the memory [...]

Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is observed this Thursday, April 24. This week’s columns are about the Holocaust.Raoul Wallenberg—One of the Thirty-Six?It is unlikely that we will know how many Hungarian Jews Raoul Wallenberg saved. It is in the tens of thousands and perhaps as many as one hundred thousand. He launched an initiative called “protective” passports, known as the Schutzpass. He also helped to establish “safe houses”, which, under the protection of the Swedish Legation, rescued some fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Jews.On January 17, 1945, while on his way to visit Soviet military headquarters, Raoul Wallenberg was captured by the Soviets. Soviet sources later claimed he died in Lubyanka prison in July 1947. His cause of death is disputed but one thing we know. He never emerged from the Soviet prison.The Jewish mystical tradition suggests there are thirty-six righteous people—Lamed-Vav Tazikim, or “Lamedvovkniks”—without whom the world would come to [...]