Commemorating and standing strong

Eighty years ago, a small group of Jews living in the Warsaw ghetto bravely sacrificed their lives to stand and fight Nazi soldiers who were rounding up residents of the ghetto and sending them to their deaths. Despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the Jewish fighters held off the Nazi army for almost a month, before the ghetto was finally razed to the ground. This act is a testament to the human spirit and a stark reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. It is also a reminder of the spirit of resistance that Jewish people across the world have demonstrated for millennia.

Last month, I had the honor of joining Holocaust Museum LA for its Yom HaShoah Commemoration in Pan Pacific Park, where we marked the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. We heard from Holocaust survivors, from local rabbis and from individuals who were born in refugee camps following the war.

When it was my time to speak, I shared my experience of being a mom to three young Jewish children and my conversations with my oldest, who is just learning about the Holocaust for the first time. For those of you with children, you know how devastating it can be to explain to a