Holocaust research can often be compared to exploring what lies beneath a numbing scar - Who was the Grandparent, Uncle, Aunt,Cousin, or family member I never knew, who were ripped away by tragic events in history. I thought this was so sad , that even the angels from heaven cried....

I was in Munich, Germany - and I had a vision for a memorial, where thousands of candles could be lit to memorialize the sparks of all the souls that rose to Heaven.

Has mankind learned his lesson ? Well look at the videos in the NY Times where Nicholas Kristof, brings to the viewers attention the plight of the refuges in the Congo, four million to date
which have died from war, hunger, and disease. Where did all our civilization and technology disappear to ? Are we repeating the 1940's where millions of human souls are lost...once again.
Oh well it's Africa, here we go again - Uganda, Darfur, Somalia, Ruanda.

Hmmm maybe the retiring CEO of Exxon, could spare a plane full of food, or John Chambers could fly down and tell them about all the new developments in internet telecommunications,
and Bill Gates could bring some Vista voip servers, and of course some food and medicine. The Saudi princes could cruise over in their mega yachts from the Mediterranean and hold a feast or two. The Sultan of Brunai could fly a few thousand refuges over to his palaces and hotels for some R&R. Was it Candide who said "This is the best of all possible worlds ? "

What happened to all the missionaries ? Did 4 million people deserve this... ?

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Once, in 1989, I was in Marienplatz, one lovely summer evening, there were South American Indians playing native music. The Plaza was lively, but it wasn’t, something was alien, something was wrongful and uncleansed, something was in an unholy spatial temporal distortion, something was forgotten, perhaps even books were burned here, words of hatred were once spoken here, holy men were beaten, families were broken, life was distorted, innocents deported, money extorted, treasures and property stolen, children berated, Temple and Scrolls desecrated.... that wasn’t the sound of a Shofar I heard. That wasn’t Klezmer music playing softly in the background.....

I had a vision of sanctification, of dedication, of purification of prayer and singing and triumph...thousands of candles would be shaped in the form of a Mogen David, purifying

decades of darkness, shame, and repression... celebrating our Survival, celebrating the beauty of our religion, the holiness and warmth of Israel....affirming it can never happen here to us again, it can never be the same, as the holy light exposes and purifies their shame. Let there be song and dances to go with the light, let our souls and spirits spread wings and take flight.

WHEN HEAVENLY ANGELS CRIED

B”H I can not sleep

The souls of my Mishsproche, I hear them crying out in my heart...& I begin to inwardly weep

The blood- mixed ashes, urine, flesh, bone, and seed

Their souls cry out – I have looked from a temporal cyber-distance in their eyes...and felt this imploring need

The Angels hold the souls in glowing ashes of Jewish children in their hand –and even they do not really understand

Looking up as sparkling souls travel up toward the Heavenly sky...even though in His Holy presence they will keep

And still in the ashes, held in their tender hands, the Angels weep

It was time when millions of parts of us died

A time when Heavenly Angels gazed in their hands and cried

What shame had befallen on the Human race?

This Shoah Aveyra SCREAMS out in Cyberspace

The horrors, imaginations, in my dreams

In abandonment, violence, and fright their screams

The little children gathered together en masse

Shrieing out in the rain of lead, in violent clouds of poison gas

The unholy nefesh (souls) of these ersatz ubermensch

In how many lifetimes shall they atone for this vile foul genocidal stench?

What type of wretched knave

Would murder millions of children or use them as a slave?

Let me envision in Marienplatz just this one beauteous summer night

Thousands of Yahrzeit candles formed in Mogen Davids emanating a holy and purifying light

Where we can recite Brochas and Kaddish on this eternal remembrance night

Just this once, to light candle, in lieu of maypole celebrations and a burning yule

Let us join these lights with the sparks of our ancestors in Simchas and in the eternity of Gilgul

Yes with pride and joy this time around, with psalms and brochas we can join our hands and

consecrate this ground

The Soul of our Planet needs this very light

To illume in our consciousness the true meaning of this tearful plight

That this horror does not ever again add more continuity

We must pray, with all good men and women, against any thought of perpetuity

We must merge in everlasting love, unity, and compassion...to heal the suffering torment of our brethren this night

To join hands, celebrate, dance, sing, and purify our planet of any more plight

Please Oh Glorious Heavenly King within and up above

Shower us all, your children, throughout your planet, with your Grace, Blessing, Peace, and Love

As we enter this new Millennium, escaping from a time of war, hatred, and violence from which we disengage

Let the souls of our Misproche be healed as we welcome them back with a joyous, peaceful age

Perhaps by the new Reichstag in Berlin, there could be a monument, where Heavenly Angels would hold an urn or perhaps a handful of ashes to remind us not to ever commit such a sin against Heaven, G-d, or eachother on this Planet ever again, that mankind learn it’s lesson to be kinder, more compassionate, and loving towards eachother. so that we may one day soon overcome our imperfections. We can each start with ourselves.

I wondered the other night as I was looking at Holocaust photos on the web, was I looking

unbeknownst to me, at the faces of my family, my relatives I never had met or knew?

In truth they were all my family, we are all eachother’s family.

Whether it be Cambodia, Mogadishu, Bosnia, Uganda, Kurdish Iraq, Armenia, Siberia, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Algeria ...let it end, let it be no more.