Tomorrow, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Currently, there are 45,000 Holocaust survivors in the New York area. Each one of them has a story. A few are contained in this beautiful video, which I hope you’ll take a moment to watch.

The part of the story much less known is that 40% of the survivors in our area live in poverty.

That’s why one of my predecessors — Ernie Michel, z”l, who was a survivor of Auschwitz himself — helped establish UJA-Federation’s Community Initiative for Holocaust Survivors, funding a range of critical services for survivors living in New York and Israel.

As a community, we bear the sacred responsibility to never forget what happened and, equally important, to never abandon those who endured unimaginable horror simply because they were Jewish.

No group is more deserving of our support. No group is more entitled to live their remaining years in dignity.

Shabbat shalom