A Synagogue Reader
July 24, 2024
Back in January, this year, I was invited by the Program Director of a Winnipeg synogogue to participate in their annual Holocaust Interfaith Remembrance service. Because I have a number of Jewish friends, I wasn’t totally surprised to get this invitation, and I responded immediately with an “I am honoured and humbled to be invited, and happy to do it!”
At the time when I received the request, the date of the event, May 5, 2024 1 was three months away. But, in due course, I was asked to submit a brief autobiography, and was given some instructions about time of arrival, where to park, and where to enter the synagogue building. Then the text that I was to read arrived in my inbox.
It was an except from the “Megillat Hashoah,” a scroll that is written in modern Hebrew, with an English translation. Mercifully, I wasn’t expected to read the Hebrew part, only the English.
“Megillat Hashoah” means “Holocaust Scroll.” It is a six-chapter liturgical piece, written at the turn of the twenty-first century, and was first unveiled at a Holocaust memorial service in Toronto, in 2003. The text is built around first-person testimonies of those who, during and after the Second World War, survived the systematic destruction, by the Nazis, of millions of Jews. The scroll includes a ritual, with candle-lighting, and some short prayers, but the main part of it is an almost poetic meditation, to be read by a handful of different readers, of which I was to be one.
Here is a sample from the passage that I was to read:
Countless trains stuffed with human cargo sped to the camps, where from chimneys smoke ascended to God; but the heavens were brass and the firmament iron. The click-clack of boxcar wheels blended with the barking of dogs, and the clank of iron doors merged with the stomping of hobnailed boots. Like a gigantic thundering orchestra, all of these sounds silenced the thin small voice bursting out of the hearts of the precious few, the righteous of the world’s nations who had been touched by the word of God. May God recall their deeds in their favour.
The whole scroll has the intensity of this brief excerpt.
By the way, as you can probably tell, the last two sentences of the above excerpt speak, with appreciation, about the countries that welcomed Jewish refugees, and about the people in Europe who attempted to rescue, to hide, or to smuggle potential victims out of the country.
In due course, the day of remembrance arrived, and I made my way to the synagogue. I was deliberately early, in order to attend their regular evening prayer service that preceded the remembrance ceremony. I put on the kippah 2 that was available at the entrance, and went into the sanctuary. Unfortunately, when the service began, I was unable to take part as much as I had hoped, because it consisted almost entirely of chanting in the Hebrew language. But the small congregation took part very nicely, and sang much of the chants in response to the presiding rabbi.
Then the sanctuary began to fill with folks who were coming for the Megillat Hashoah. Soon the room was full. I took my place in the front row, which had been reserved for readers, and around me were a United Church scholar, a German born-and-raised pastor of a Lutheran church, and a university professor who founded a “Jewish Community On Campus” advocacy group, and nine other readers of various ethnicities and religions.
Then, the rabbi stepped up onto the platform, and asked everyone to rise, as the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – the Honourable Anita R. Neville – entered the sanctuary, accompanied by her Aide-de-Camp.
Then I spotted the Premier of Manitoba, standing in the front row across the centre aisle from me, ready to greet the Lieutenant Governor.
Oh my. “This is a pretty significant occasion!” said I, to myself.
Once the dignitaries were in place, and with the whole gathering remaining standing, the rabbi sounded the shofar – a traditional horn played like a trumpet – and the memorial formally began. There were words of welcome, and an introduction to the Megillat Hashoah, then six candles were lit, each one by member of a different faith group.
Then the readings from the scroll began. The first reader was the Lieutenant Governor. Then a long passage was chanted in Hebrew by the synagogue’s cantor.
As he reads from the Shoah Scroll, Tony has
Belle Jarniewski at his side, ready to help if he needs it.
I was the next reader. I was formally introduced by Belle Jarniewski, the Executive Director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. I came to the table that held the scroll, and began my reading.
Only later did I find out that what had been sung by the cantor, immediately prior to my coming forward, was my own assigned reading, but in the original Hebrew. This was one of only two occasions in the ceremony when verses from the scroll where presented in both Hebrew and English.
One by one, the rest of the readers came forward, and read their assigned verses. In addition to the two solo Hebrew chants from the text of the scroll, there were some songs, performed by piano, violin, and voice. Programs had been provided to the congregation with English translations of any lyrics that were being sung in Hebrew or Yiddish.
In due course, the rabbi thanked everyone for coming, sounded the shofar once more, and the ceremony ended.
It was all very solemn, very reverent, and very moving.
Yom Hashoah Interfaith Commemorative Service
Congregation
Among those seated in the front row are: Wab Kinew, Manitoba’s Premier (center)
and, to the Premier's left, Lietenant Governor Anita Neville, and her Aide-de-Camp
Photos: Robyn Shapiro
And… what about Gaza?
There is no doubt in my mind that everyone who was in the synagogue that evening was accutely aware of the carnage going on in Gaza. While we were reflecting upon the horrifying murder of six million Jews eighty years ago, bombs were dropping, guns were blazing, and people in the thousands were being killed. There are reasons that might explain the hatred that modern Palestinians direct at Israel, and reasons that might explain why the government of Israel felt it necessary to so violently respond to the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. But, whatever we feel about those issues, we cannot forget or deny the evil of the Holocaust.
Every time humans commit atrocities, well-meaning people say “never again,” and yet violence and mayhem rear their ugly heads over and over. Has anyone yet figured out how to permanently stop such horrors in human society? No one has. For my part, I turn to prayer, and to my faith that God can fill the heart of anyone who prays for it, with love, forgiveness, and peace… but the line in the ancient psalms reemains true, that “…there is no [human] that does good; no, not one” 3 In other words, as long as there are humans, there will be wrongdoing. So we must continue to remember the evil of the Holocaust, and do our level best to bring about peace in our neighbourhoods, in our world, and in our time.
Next: “A University Lecturer”
FOOTNOTES:
1 “Yom Hashoah” (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is set by the Hebrew calendar as 27 Nisan, roughly a week after Passover. Each year, it happens on different dates of the current universal calendar – in 2024 it went from sundown May 5, to sundown, May 6. In other years, it mostly occurs in April.
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2 A kippah (or “yamulke” in Yiddish), is a small skullcap that men are expected to wear.
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3 See Psalm 14:3 – these words are repeated, identically, in Psalm 53:3, and are quoted by St. Paul, in his Letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 3:12). After quoting the psalm, Paul went on to emphasize his point by writing, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23.
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