PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) – Wednesday evening through Thursday evening marks Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year, the day falls against the backdrop of a sharp increase in antisemitism, which shows just how important it is to commemorate and remember the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the six million Jews that were killed during that time.
Though the date fluctuates year over year depending on the Jewish calendar, the event tied to Holocaust Remebrance Day is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19th, 1943, in which 7,000 Jews were killed fighting against the German occupation. Tens of thousands more were captured and sent to concentration camps where most did not survive.
Eszter Kutas, the director of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, noted how important the uprising was, despite how it ended.
"This was a truly significant event,” she said. “It was, unfortunately, a battle that was not won.”
But still, that resistance was symbolic of something greater within the Jewish community, which is why the memory is carried on through today, at a time when antisemitic attacks are on the rise.
The Philadelphia Anti-Defamation League has been tracking and auditing antisemitic incidents since 1979. Robin Burstein, the Deputy Director of the ADL in the region, notes that 2021 saw 2,717 instances of antisemitism in the United States.
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"It's a 34% increase over last year,” Burstein said. “And it's the highest year we have on record."
Hateful propaganda is another issue that both Kutas and Burstein say is all too prevalent today, and recently hit very close to home when, over the weekend, a group called the “Goyim Defense League” distributed virulently antisemitic flyers in Lower Merion.
“This weekend was actually the first time that ADL had reports about their activity in Pennsylvania,” Burstein said.
Listen to a special commentary on the importance of Yom HaShoah from Larry Kane:
Kutas says they are combating all this antisemitism through education, including through an event this Sunday at Philadelphia's Holocaust Memorial on the Ben Franklin Parkway geared towards youth, where there will be music, art projects, and a candle lighting.