October 7, 2023 through the Prism of the Holocaust
At 10 AM April 14, 2026, sirens sounded throughout Israel. Instead of running towards the closest safe room Israelis stopped whatever they were doing stood tall and bowed their heads in reflection of the murder of millions of our brothers and sisters. Holocaust Day (Yom HaShoah), also known as the Day of Remembrance and Heroism, had officially begun.
The evening before Yom HaShoah many people attended a variety of ceremonies noting this tragic period of Jewish history and the attempt by the German people to eradicate the Jewish race. At a virtual reality presentation, we followed the life of Avigdor Neumann, a Czechoslovakian Jew born in Velká Sevljuš in 1931. Avigdor, then the 12-year-old son of a prominent Hasidic leader, was separated from his family and somehow survived Auschwitz, Mauthausen, cattle cars and death marches to arise from the ashes and establish a family now numbering nearly 60 individuals.
During the telling of Avigdor’s story, photos of piles of shoes, eyeglasses and hair flashed through the virtual reality in front of my eyes. These images reminded me of the piles of burned and bullet ridden cars created by the Hamas terrorists at the Nova festival on October 7, 2023. On that day 378 humans were brutally and gleefully murdered at Nova and another 50 taken into dark dungeons of captivity. Only half of these returned alive. In all, on October 7, 2023, Hamas succeeded in killing more than 1200, capturing more than 250 and wounding over 5000, mostly civilians.
The Holocaust and the Hamas massacre are incomparable based on the numbers of Jews that were slaughtered. However, the goals of both events were the same. The Nazis, in word and deed, planned, initiated and carried out a genocide against the Jews under their dominion.
Similarly, the Hamas charter of 1988 specifically states “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”.
This article in the Hamas charter has never been repudiated. Indeed, in a sermon on April 7, 2023, Hamas official Hamad El Regeb prayed for the destruction of Jews as an entity.
Thank G-d due to Israel’s resilience and superior military power Hamas was unable to fulfill its genocidal desires. However, one cannot ignore their writings and rhetoric. Given the upper hand there is no doubt they would kill as many Jews as they could. Genocide of the Jewish nation is their aim.
Holocaust Day begins a week of introspection in Israel which culminates in Yom HaZikaron (Israel Memorial Day) when the nation remembers those who fell in our wars and from terrorism. The nation honors sons and daughters who gave their lives to protect our freedom and independence. Such sacrifice is not new to the Jewish nation. We remain determined to prevail over all enemies, and we will not submit to those who seek our destruction.
Avigdor Neumann survived against all odds and demonical forces and replanted his seed in the Holyland. He will stand straight and tall this Yom Atzmaut (Independence Day) knowing that with HaShem’s help he and his fellow Jews will continue to thrive into the future while our enemies, like those since biblical times, will be blotted out from existence.
Dr Naider is a former Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College of Staten Island and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at the City University of New York. He lives in Rehovot.
