https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/jewish/yom-hashoah
Public Life
Yom HaShoah is a Jewish observance but not a nationwide public holiday countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, as many Jewish people will take time on this day to remember the victims of the Holocaust, Jewish organizations may be closed or operate a reduced level of service.
Background
Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party, which he led, placed a lot of importance on their ideas of racial hygiene. They believed that it was possible to create a pure race of supreme German people using selective breeding techniques applied in agriculture. They wished to eliminate certain groups of people, who were seen as racially impure, from Germany. These included: Jewish people; the Roma; certain groups of people from Poland and Russia; Jehovah’s Witnesses; disabled persons; homosexuals; and Communists. The removal of Jewish people from German society was particularly well-planned and was referred to as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. About 11 million people, of whom about six million were Jewish, died mainly in death and concentration camps.
It was originally proposed to hold Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of the ecclesiastical year in the Jewish calendar. This is the anniversary of the ghetto uprising in Warsaw, which occurred on April 19, 1943, in the Gregorian calendar. However, the 14th day of Nisan is the day before the start of Passover (Pesach) and the 27th day was chosen instead. This is eight days before Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzma’ut). Holocaust Remembrance Day has been observed in Israel since 1959. The date of Yom HaShoah may be moved forward or backwards, so that it does not fall on Friday or Saturday.
Yom HaShoah is not universally recognized or observed. Some groups remember the victims of the Holocaust on other days of mourning, many of which predate World War II. Examples are the ninth day of the month of Av, known as Tisha B’Av and which falls in July of August of the Gregorian calendar, and the 10th day of the month of Tevet, known as Asarah b’Tevet and which falls in December or January of the Gregorian calendar. Other groups criticize the day because it does not commemorate the lives of non-Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.
Symbols
A range of people, objects, texts and shapes symbolize the Holocaust. These include: Anne Frank and her diary; the railway cars used to transport people to concentration camps; gates with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei”; clothes worn by prisoners; swastikas; and the yellow stars of David that Jewish people were required to wear on their outer clothing.
Symbols of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust include recitations of transcriptions of lists of names of the victims and eternal flames, such as one that burns in the Hall of Remembrance (Ohel Yizkor) in Yad Vashem, Israel.
Egyptian Christian Congregation
April 11, 2017
Palm SUnday 2017
At least 27 people have been killed in an explosion inside a church in the Egyptian Nile Delta city of Tanta, state media reported, as another blast killed 16 in front of a church in the coastal city of Alexandria.
December 2016
Ar7: Azza
April 9, 2017
Gaza: 26 to be hanged soon
The Hamas General Prosecutor in Gaza has announced that 26 death row inmates are “awaiting” the execution of their sentence.
While they include those convicted of cooperating with Israel, there are also common criminals.
Ps. 11
April 8, 2017
Psalms Chapter 11 תְּהִלִּים
א לַמְנַצֵּחַ, לְדָוִד:
בַּיהוָה, חָסִיתִי–אֵיךְ, תֹּאמְרוּ לְנַפְשִׁי; נודו (נוּדִי), הַרְכֶם צִפּוֹר. 1 For the Leader. [A Psalm] of David. {N}
In the LORD have I taken refuge; how say ye to my soul: ‘Flee thou! to your mountain, ye birds’?
ב כִּי הִנֵּה הָרְשָׁעִים, יִדְרְכוּן קֶשֶׁת, כּוֹנְנוּ חִצָּם עַל-יֶתֶר–
לִירוֹת בְּמוֹ-אֹפֶל, לְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב. 2 For, lo, the wicked bend the bow, they have made ready their arrow upon the string, {N}
that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
ג כִּי הַשָּׁתוֹת, יֵהָרֵסוּן– צַדִּיק, מַה-פָּעָל. 3 When the foundations are destroyed, what hath the righteous wrought?
ד יְהוָה, בְּהֵיכַל קָדְשׁוֹ– יְהוָה, בַּשָּׁמַיִם כִּסְאוֹ:
עֵינָיו יֶחֱזוּ– עַפְעַפָּיו יִבְחֲנוּ, בְּנֵי אָדָם. 4 The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD, His throne is in heaven; {N}
His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.
ה יְהוָה, צַדִּיק יִבְחָן: וְרָשָׁע, וְאֹהֵב חָמָס–שָׂנְאָה נַפְשׁוֹ. 5 The LORD trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth.
ו יַמְטֵר עַל-רְשָׁעִים, פַּחִים: אֵשׁ וְגָפְרִית, וְרוּחַ זִלְעָפוֹת–מְנָת כּוֹסָם. 6 Upon the wicked He will cause to rain coals; fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.
ז כִּי-צַדִּיק יְהוָה, צְדָקוֹת אָהֵב; יָשָׁר, יֶחֱזוּ פָנֵימוֹ. 7 For the LORD is righteous, He loveth righteousness; the upright shall behold His face.
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