Jews and Christians participate in rituals as part of their tradition. For Jews the Passover Meal is the time to re-member G-d’s mighty act of bringing Israel forth from bondage and death and setting their feet on the way to the promised land and receiving the word the Torah. For Christians it is the weekly re-membering through the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion, the Eucharist. In that meal we are re-membered to “the sacrifice for sin” and “the model of the godly life” through the living presence of the risen dead man, Jesus of Nazareth.
The thing is this: the act of “re-membering” is not passive. It is not something which happened “back then”. For both traditions we participate in “active re-membering”. For Jews today, they re-connect with the Israel that walked dry-shod through the sea; for Christians we receive the living Christ- the living Word. In that moment we become one.
When the world remembers the Shoah (Holocaust) it remembers not only an historical event, it remembers an unprecedented event so that such an event remains forever unprecedented. Remembering is more than memory, it is active participation in life which says “Never again!”
April 25th 3:30 pm at Samuel Lutheran Lutheran Church, on the corner of Muskegon Avenue and 8th Street, downtown Muskegon, we will commemorate the Holocaust once again, in hope, that such an event will remain unprecedented.
On Monday, April 26, the Shoah Committee in partnership with the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, will gather students and a teacher representing various high schools to hear a survivors story and to respond to it through question, deliberation, planning and an action plan.
On Monday evening there will be a dinner at First Lutheran Church to raise funds for the work of the SRCM (Journey, Commemoration service, speakers, classes). Dr. Henry Greenspan will be with a survivor doing an interview for those who attend. We will be asking community groups, businesses, organizations to sponsor a table. Individual tickets will also be available. There will be a limited number. For more information keep up to date on this website.