Never again…Never again? What does it mean?
There’s not a lot that draws me to the news these days, but Russian’s invasion of Ukraine sure got my attention. And it really gets me angry enough to write, edit and re-write at 1am in the morning.
“Never again?” Have we been joking all this time?
My ancestors on my father’s side actually were from Ukraine. When I was about 7 or 8, my father told me that his father shortened our name of Omansky to Omans. “Why?” I asked. He told me by shortening our name it would help him to get a job because people still hated Jews and they wouldn’t hire him. Well, Thank G-d we don’t have to worry about that Ever Again.
Never Again!
So, in my twenties, I changed my birth name of Omans back to Omansky, a somewhat feeble and naive attempt to get closer to those ancestors.
Shortly after changing my name, I visited Yad Vashem in Israel, and learned that when my father’s grandfather arrived in the U.S., his name actually was NOT Omansky. It was Umansky. Not Omansky! What? I’m confused; nobody told me that. So, how could it be? During my trip, I learned our name starting with U-M-A-N meant we were from Uman, Ukraine, the burial place of the famous and important Rabbi Nachman. The town of Uman had remained an annual pilgrimage for Jews from all over the world who still come each year on Passover, even to this day! When I learned all this as an adult, it felt….cool! Hey! My family came from Uman, an important town for Jews! Who knew? Not me. But, All Right!!
But, why was I never told? Maybe they didn’t know. Or, maybe they forgot.
Never forget?
I always loved thinking about where I came from and imagining how my ancestors lived. How different their lives must have been. But how were they similar too? Who knew? Who remembered? Who could tell me?
Did I have their curly hair, as my daughter has mine? Did they think like me? Did they experience similar emotional responses to the world? Did they have similar struggles, and gifts? Who of them perished during the Holocaust? What were they thinking the moment they met their demise…
…And could it happen to me here in America?
“NO, dont say that. Dont be silly. That’s not possible.
“NEVER AGAIN.”
What did they mean by Never Again? And what about all the other different ones the Nazis hated, and punished for no reason at all, Catholics, Blacks, Gypsies, Gays, to name a few? Could it happen to them again? Could it even be worse?
Of course not! That’s why we say, Never Again.
“Never again” became echoes of my psyche, the words of my Rabbis at synagogue, Chabad, and in Israel, as I came to identify and understand more about my faith and ethnicity, and the recurring suffering of the Jewish people over millennia. Never would the world stand idly by and watch such horrors occur again and again and again to the Jewish people… or…to…others?
Never…again.
I read and learned later that many Americanized Jews, after WWI and WWII attempted to forget what had happened, and assimilate into their new diverse communities, while gradually and unconsciously effacing their own jewishness.
If WE forget, maybe THEY won’t remember. And better yet, maybe they won’t notice that we actually ARE different. And yet other Jews had been taught that we MUST remember in order for the rest of the world never to forget, what the Nazis did to us.
“Never again.” We tell the words to each other. We say them to feel strong against ANY enemy who tries to extinguish us again.
We are careful not to compare other atrocities and terror to what happened to us under Hitler’s regime. And we are right to do so, because the horrors of the Holocaust were the sparks of a pure maniacal and deranged tyrant, one who deserves a special place in history we’d like to forget, but know we shouldn’t. While we hope and believe there can never be another sick mind like that.
Never again?
“Never again”, means that never again should we as a global human race allow a dictator or people to kill and torture innocent people. But it’s happening…again.
When Hitler raged his terror campaign on the world, the history books tell us the civilized world waited far too long, and hoped it would just stop. And had we continued to wait, it certainly would have turned out differently. And if we dare to learn from that history, the longer we wait now, the harder it will be to stop the terror, and that’s exactly what Putin hopes will happen...again.
The words of “Never Again”, feel like a hollow disappointment. Oy vay.
I AM angry and fearful that without strong and decisive, collective action, these two words will remain only words and they will cease to carry the strength and meaning we have assigned to them.
Never again. Never again?
What does it mean?
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