I was struggling for an appopriate way to write about Yom Hashoa, when I found
this. Money quote:
We remember the tragic deaths and vibrant lives of our Jewish brethren who perished—as shopkeepers and craftsmen, scientists and authors, teachers and students, parents and children, husbands and wives. We remember the richly hued and ancient Jewish civilizations that were systematically destroyed—from Salonika, Greece, to Vilnius, Lithuania.
And the rest of it is also, as the Brits say, "spot on." My only quibble is this:
We remember the fertile soil of European anti-Semitism—cultivatedover centuries by cultural, political, and religious voices—that created an all-too-receptive climate for the Nazi objective ofeliminating the Jewish people.
That's a hedge. The "cultural voices" that cultivated that fertile soil was religious in nature, and so were the anti-Jewish politics of the time. Almost all of it was rooted in religion. Let's not forget that, please.