2021 -- S 0817

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON APRIL 8, 2021, AND

RECOGNIZING THE 73RD ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL'S ESTABLISHMENT

     Introduced By: Senators Goldin, Miller, and Raptakis

     Date Introduced: April 13, 2021

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), which begins at sunset on

the 27th day of the month of Nisan, corresponding to April 7th, 2021, is a solemn day of

remembrance honoring the victims of the Holocaust and those who showed resistance and

amazing heroism during this horrendous period in our world history. Seventy-six years ago,

Soviet forces and shortly thereafter, other Allied forces, liberated Auschwitz and other

concentration camps, liberating thousands of suffering and starving prisoners; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in world history from 1933

to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systematically and

barbarically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews

throughout Europe because they were perceived to be "racially inferior" and "life unworthy of

life"; and

     WHEREAS, In the year 1933, nine million Jews lived in Europe, 500,000 of whom lived

in Germany, and were subjected to over 400 laws and regulations to strip them of their basic

human rights; and

     WHEREAS, On November 9th and 10th, 1938, referred to as Kristallnacht, Nazis torched

synagogues, Jewish homes, schools, and killed Jewish residents, beginning systemic violence

against Jews in Germany; and

     WHEREAS, This year marks the 78th Anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,

where Jews fought and refused to surrender to Nazi forces. Their brave actions in April and May

of 1943 stand as testimony to a rare and indomitable human spirit and extraordinary courage

exhibited in the darkest hours of man's inhumanity; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day to make a special effort to remember,

so that the lessons of our past are never again repeated. The day is also a time to applaud all those

who endured and who bravely rebuilt lives that had been so cruelly shattered, and acknowledge,

with admiration, those heroes who risked and often lost their own lives in order to save others;

and

     WHEREAS, On May 14th, 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the death

of six million Jews in the Holocaust, David Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence

established the modern State of Israel, creating a homeland for Jewish refugees; and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Islanders continue a longstanding relationship with the State of

Israel, enriching the cultural diversity of our state's tapestry; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate hereby recognizes the historic significance of the 73rd

Anniversary of the modern State of Israel; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the United States Holocaust Museum, the

Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Memorial Education Center, Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode

Island, Mr. Adam Greenman, President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island

and Avi Nevel, Director, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative.

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