A Yom HaShoah Posting

We have many fine members of our Jewish community, many of whom came together at Tifereth Israel on Saturday evening to commemorate Yom HaShoah. We read from Megillat HaShoah, lit candles in memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in Europe, and shared memories with one another. It was a solemn evening.

The most moving experience of the evening, however, was when Anne Modenstein asked if she could read the Yiddish poem, Zog Nit Keyn Mol which was printed in our booklets. She explained that when she was a young girl she used to sing it in order to hold onto hope.

Here is a translation:
Never say that there is only death for you
Though leaden clouds may be concealing skies of blue
Because the hour that we have hungered for is near
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble: We are here!

From land of palm-tree to the far-off land of snow
We shall be coming with our torment and our woe,
And everywhere our blood has sunk into the earth
Shall our bravery, our vigor blossom forth!

We'll have the morning sun to set our day aglow,
And all our yesterdays shall vanish with the foe,
And if the time is long before the sun appears,
Then let this song go like a signal through the years.

This song was written with our blood and not with lead,
It's not a song that birds are singing overhead.
It was a people, among toppling barricades,
That sang this song of ours with pistols and grenades.

So never say that there is only death for you
For leaden clouds may be concealing skies of blue
And yet the hour that we have hungered for is near
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble: We are here!
(Hirsh Glick)