Sneak Peek — our next “Have Your Say” will be by Michael Lozman

Coming soon!

Here’s a sneak peek at our next “Have Your Say” op-ed, which will be a detailed personal essay by Dr. Michael Lozman, who has worked to protect and preserve more than a dozen abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Belarus and Lithuania.

In it, Lozman tells of how he became interested, how he enlists and organizes U.S. college students and other volunteers, and how he arranges cooperation on the ground with local authorities, schools, and townspeople.

“Every Jew is responsible for all other Jews,” he told JHE, explaining his own commitment.

One need only read history to realize that we escape this requirement at our peril. We all have a responsibility to those Jews murdered during the Nazi era to preserve and protect their family cemeteries. The Nazis and their collaborators planned to destroy everything Jewish, and to accomplish this they killed six million Jews, decimated their synagogues, and were responsible for the considerable  destruction of their cemeteries. Those few cemeteries fortunate to be left intact are decaying because there are no Jews left to care for them.  For the sake of those Jews killed, we owe it to them to restore their family cemeteries; to preserve their family names and resting place. Think of your own family cemetery, what it means to you and the care you put into it.  We must do no less for our fellow Jews  who were prevented from doing the same.