The new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, designed by Peter Eisenman, has opened in Berlin. (Read the Times review)
If you're one of our very good friends from the right, who would prefer not to be reminded of the Holocaust during Nissan (the happiest month of the year (TM)) please avert your eyes. (While you're at it, you may also wish to avert your eyes from the sfira beard you're growing to commemorate the 24,000 dead students of Rabbi Akiva.
Oh, and as you avert your eyes, try not to think too much about these other annoying and inconvinient facts:
(1) We mourn 33 days for Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 students, but not one for the 6 million Holocaust victims
(2) 14 of those 33 days are in Nissan (the happiest month of the year (TM))
Finally, this reminder: Rabbi Akiva's students died, the Talmud asserts, because they didn't respect one another. For a representative illustration of the authentic, Torah-True-way of respecting others, as you mourn, in Nissan, for those 24,000 students, please consult this essay.
