There are things that need to be said on this International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  

This comes from the heart of a Jewish American who lost relatives in the Holocaust and grew up in a community that took the Holocaust and the importance of learning lessons from it seriously.  We grew up asking how something that terrible could happen at all, and how it could be that the world allowed it to happen.

The Holocaust was incomprehensible until now.

Led by the United States, the world’s response to the Holocaust was the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide convened in 1948.  This was preceded by the Nuremberg Trials, where evidence that informed the convention was presented.  

It was at that convention that the definition of genocide was codified, and it’s always worth repeating it:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with

intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as

such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its

physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

Further:

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide. 

There it is.  Rooted in the evidence of both actions and state of mind, from the 13 trials of those who directed the Holocaust, evolved all the tools needed to ensure that we would never again have to ask how something that terrible could happen, nor how the world would allow it.

“Never Again” became the new battle cry, and it seemed that most decent people understood what that meant.

“Gaza will expose every hypocrite.” — Yahya Sinwar

The promise of the Genocide Convention didn’t last very long.  Slightly longer than two generations later we have a new standard for cruelty, inhumanity, unspeakable crimes, and yes, genocide.  It’s Gaza, and the progeny of Holocaust survivors are primarily responsible, as well as every world leader that traded their own privilege position for their duty to take a stand against genocide.

We are no different from our ancestors.  Anyone who feigns ignorance about how the Holocaust happened after witnessing Gaza should be dismissed as an intellectual fraud. 

The Holocaust did not start with the camps.  It started with systemic dehumanization of those who would eventually spend their final days at the camps.  That dehumanization made it possible for Genocide to be conducted with the acquiescence of the population.  It went on for years.  

Hitler’s rise to power began in 1919.  The Nazi Party was formed in 1921.  The first death camp to open was Dachau in 1933.  Kristallnacht happened in 1938.  Auschwitz-Birkenau opened in 1940.  It’s a progression.  It’s deliberate.  There was a victimhood component, too.  Hitler’s political success came from exploiting the German depression and resentment resulting from their defeat in WWI. 

Zionists learned a lot from the Nazis, and began applying it in earnest in 1948 as the Zionist Project conducted the Nakba.  The Nakba continues to this day.

The entire Zionist Project is settler-colonialism and ethnic cleansing with components of Jewish supremacy.  It’s not operationally different from Nazism.  In fact, it relies on the same strategies of systemic dehumanization, only of Palestinians.  Zionism exploits Jewish fear of repeating the Holocaust, and where fear is naturally insufficient, Zionism foments more.

As a side fact, the Zionists and Nazis collaborated.  I know, no Jewish school would ever let their students know that, but it’s true.  Zionists knew that if Nazis were successful it would be easier to convince reluctant Jews to back the project out of fear.

The Haavara Agreement of 1933 was between Nazis and Zionists.  It allowed Jews leaving Germany and Austria for Palestine (and only Palestine) to keep some of their wealth.

Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann, a ghoul who would later become Israel’s first president, convinced the British government to refuse entry to child refugees of the Holocaust so they could be transferred to Palestine instead.

In the United States, Zionists picketed non-Zionist organizations who were sending food and supplies to the Jews in the ghettos of Poland.

If you notice a rhyming similarity to Zionist behavior today, your senses are not deceiving you.

To Zionist,s “Never Again” is not universal.  They only mean Jews, and deeper truth be known, only Ashkenazi Jews of eastern European origin.  If you are not Jewish, or you have something Jews covet, your collective demise is no problem.  At its core, that’s what Nazism was too.  The problem is, Holocaust education is taught through the prism of Zionist goals, not humanitarian ones.

Hence, the disparity between the interpretations of “Never Again.” 

Holocaust education is transactionally centered around victims and victimhood, while only paying lip service to the more important piece of rejecting de-humanization and colonization universally and in all forms.  The fact that people spend years studying the Holocaust but have no idea that there is a definition of Genocide or what it encompasses, is telling.  It should be the first thing taught.

Zionists who will end your career if you do not sufficiently pay homage to their victimhood Holocaust narrative are providing material support for the Palestinian Genocide in Gaza and Ethnic Cleansing of the Occupied West Bank, and deny that either are occurring. 

If you do not reject and condemn Zionism, recognize the genocide in Gaza, and seek justice for it, any commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day is just a performative farce.

Who oversees the Catholic Church writ large?  Pope Leo or the American Jewish Committee (AJC)? At this point in history—and the Catholic Church has had a long history with the  AJC—it is a fair question to ask.   Never more so than now, considering the ongoing genocide in Gaza.  

The U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB) ,national organization to promote the greater good of mankind and the AJC, a community relations group that advocates on behalf of Israel and against anti-Jewish bigotry in the U.S. have worked together for more than eight decades. Their partnership gained significant traction in 1965 when Vatican II produced a document called Nostra Aetate (In Our Age) which focused on a new openness to non-Christian religions, including Islam and Judaism.

Yet much of Nostra Aetate is dedicated to improving the relationship between the Church and Judaism, with Islam relegated to a mere paragraph or two.

Further evidence of the strengthening bonds between the two organizations occurred in 1987 during the First Intifada (uprising), largely nonviolent, when Palestinians revolted against Israel’s then 20-year military occupation.  In that same year, Pope Paul II reaffirmed the “Jewish people’s right to a homeland, which laid to rest suspicions that the Church had theological objections to the existence of a sovereign Jewish state in the Holy Land and led to the 1993 Vatican recognition of the State of Israel through the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See.” https://www.ajc.org/news/from-regret-to-acclaim-a-jewish-reaction-to-nostra-aetate

Fast forward to April 2025 when Mondoweiss News published breaking news about a joint project between the U.S. bishops and AJC called Translate Hate: Catholic Edition, a 61-page online resource cited as an educational tool to tutor readers about anti-Jewish tropes and conspiracies. AJC produced an original edition in 2019.  https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/palestinian-christians-reject-u-s-catholic-bishops-collaboration-with-pro-israel-group/

In the article, Kairos Palestine, a faith-based organization promoting liberation from Israeli occupation, denounced USCCB’s failure to include input from Palestinian Christians and criticized its collaboration with “a leading pro-Israel advocacy group in creating an online tool that ultimately defines Palestinian resistance as antisemitic.”  

As for the timing of the publication, Translate Hate was released during “immense suffering” of a people undergoing mass killing, starvation and displacement in a genocidal war on Gaza and the West Bank.  The Kairos letter also refers to fabrications contained in the online resource, i.e.:  “accusations of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine are “categorically false,” disregarding overwhelming evidence to the contrary from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International as well as Israeli historians.

It seems inconceivable that the USCCB failed to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, an important tenet of Catholic social teaching.  Perhaps the sharp rebuke by Rome’s chief Jewish rabbi over the late Pope Francis’ “ramped up” criticism of Israel’s military campaign is one reason for their reticence.  The pope, however, continued to advocate for the Palestinians.  Most notably he prayed with parishioners of Holy Family Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza and called the church every night until two days before his death in April 2025.  In July of that same year, the church was struck by an Israeli tank, resulting in the death of three parishioners and wounding the priest who was close to Pope Francis. 

As of 2026, despite a ceasefire, Palestinians are still dying through overt and covert strategies.  After more than two years, the Catholic Church remains silent despite devastating reports from the World Health Organization and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) among others.  

Has silencing replaced advocacy in the Church?  Unfortunately, the very question is considered suspect.  On page 48 of Translate Hate, the Catholic version says “silencing” is considered antisemitic “when it goes beyond legitimate critique of government policies to questioning the right of the State of Israel to exist or the right of the Jewish people to self-determination.” 

Likewise, it should be evident that silence as practiced by the church, the government, and the U.S. media has contributed greatly to the unprecedented suffering of the Palestinian people.

In a time when massive amounts of aid need to flood into Gaza, it’s not happening. In a time when current survivors of an ongoing genocide desperately need healthcare aid and food, it’s not happening.  What has happened is USCCB’s decision not to stand in solidarity with the oppressed per Catholic Social Teaching.  U.S. bishops must turn down the volume that has diverted them from this imperative.  

Only then may they hear that their silence has amplified into the sound of an ongoing genocide with its cacophony of bombs, buildings exploding, screams, cries, suffering and the drift of toxic dust filled with a pulverized people. 

2025 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary

June 8th – 2:30 PM – Pilgrim Congregational Church, West 14th St. Cleveland

This is a fundraiser for the communities of Masafer Yatta

Thursday, December 5, 2024. 7:00 pm.

It was an election like no other: polarizing, ugly, passionately contested. The results suggest a realignment of U.S. politics and a rightward shift in national policies and priorities. Yet most our greatest concerns were invisible during the campaigns.

This panel and audience discussion of the election and its implications for our work, took place on Zoom only, thanks to a December snow storm. We addressed Palestine, the growing risk of nuclear war, the iron grip of the military-industrial complex, climate change, Latin America and immigration, and party politics.

Panelists:  

Marc Alvarado, InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF)

Harriet Applegate, Cleveland Heights Democrats

Francis Chiappa, Cleveland Peace Action

Arianna Mack, Environmental Health Watch

Shereen Naser, Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community

Land Welcome: Philip Yenyo 

Moderator: Don Bryant, Cleveland Peace Action

Zoom host: Jim Nau, Cleveland Peace Action

Free and open to the public.

Day 1: The Walk & Fast for Humanity will convene at the Fountain of Eternal Life at 120 Public Square on “Black Friday,” November 29, 2024, Noon – 2pm. This is to name four world famines and food insecurity in Cleveland, Ohio. We emphasize the huge Pentagon budget and campaigns that foment poverty and famine in our government’s proxy war zones.  Famine in Gaza, Haiti, Sudan, and Yemen are our focus. We ask that participants everywhere fast from food, fuel and consumerism on “Black Friday.” Readings and songs will be offered. From :Public Square we will walk to a public building to address our legislators. We invite you to join us and, if you wish, assist with a reading or song. Please reply to this email if you’d like to be part of the program – call Don Bryant at 216.255.1576

Day 2: Solidarity Bazaar and the Annual State of Nonviolence. The speaker will be Larry Clark, a pastor of Monroe Street United Methodist Church in Toledo), who has visited Tent of Nations many times.  His presentation will focus on Tent of Nations (and include other nonviolent activists in Palestine).
When: Saturday, November 30, 2024  (Vendors set up at 10 AM, doors open from 11-3)
Where:  North Presbyterian Church, 4515 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44103
Schedule:
North Presbyterian Advent children’s activities-from 11 to 1.  (Making crafts, trimming a Christmas tree, pizza lunch–all children are welcome to participate)
Vendors’ Market-set up at 10 AM– Doors open at 11 Close at 3. (Finish by 4).
11-Videos about Tent of Nations and CPT’s film Light–showing in the North Sanctuary
11 to 12- Finger Food and Pizza available (Free Will offering suggested)
12:30-Unveiling of Four Solidarity Panels by New Young Artist-North Sanctuary
1:00– State of Nonviolence by Larry Clark (W/Q & A)
2:00- Group Reading of If I Must Die–Placing Christ Child on Rubble
3:00 -Setting out luminaries outside North Presbyterian Church

Today’s students, including Students for Justice in Palestine and allied student groups, stand in a long tradition of legitimate on-campus protest, going back at least to the Vietnam War. Editors at the Observer have recently made a compelling case for student free speech on campus. Retribution by the Administration or onerous rules that block any prompt response to breaking news, inhibits free speech and betrays the University’s role as place of open inquiry and dialogue. The Administration must recognize the legitimate right of all students to express their political views, unhindered, at this crucial moment in U.S. history.

There are better ways of handling highly controversial issues like Israel-Palestine. Universities, above all our institutions, should be bastions of free speech. If students are demanding divestment from Israel because of its policies and actions, why not have campus-wide open discussions of the issue, viewed from all sides? Pledging this very thing led students at Brown University, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota to dismantle their encampments last Spring.

Suppressing free speech on campus will not resolve tensions around this issue within the University community. And preventing discussion in our society, of the complexities of the Israel-Palestine relationship, will only delay any movement towards resolution and peace. Universities like Case Western Reserve must take the lead.

Demanding No U.S. defense of the Israeli Genocide!, this afternoon Veterans for Peace and Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition staged a demo at the entrance to the Toledo Air National Guard base at Toledo Express Airport this afternoon. As we arrived at 3 PM, I delivered a letter of demands to a sergeant who tried to explain to me that he was not authorized to accept mail. He finally took it as we departed.

See Toledo Blade coverage for photos

We arrived with five people who were willing to risk arrest. The entry drive to the base was very wide, and flat, and when activists refused to budge to allow incoming traffic to go in, drivers drover across the grass at the far edges of the drive to get in.

About half a dozen Air Natl Guardies finally came out to the entrance, including one guy with the obligatory AR-15.  Five deputies also showed up and were initially nasty, but after 20 minutes, must have been told to stand down. They gently would push demonstrators aside to let traffic in, but when that didn’t work, they literally left about half the entrance way to demonstrators who would not move, and they created a narrow passage at the edge of the drive on the opposite side.

It was a hot, sunny day, and once the tone was set — that apparently there were to be no arrests — the police mellowed and friendly conversations (!) started to take place. The police even offered bottled water to us! The troops also got a little nicer and a little defensive about what they do. The ANG base is an F-16 squadron; 4 F-16s took off for practice runs while we were there, loudly breaking the sound barrier. The base does a great deal of mechanical work on F-16 engines and delivers planes globally for US Air Force purposes. We think Toledo ANG pilots also have been involved in the US air defense of Israel’s genocide when Iran undertook its multiple missile counterstrike last April, and possibly in August, when there was tension about an Iranian and Hezbollah counterstrike. There are 14 US bases in the Middle East, all of which have air power.

We ended the demonstration at 4:30 and the deputies actually suggested if we have another demo at the base, that we call them so they can make sure traffic moves safely. “Irony” doesn’t begin to describe this day.

 Our movement in Toledo is diverse, age-wise, racially and from religious and gender perspectives. Today was good for us to better get to know one another and forge group identity. There are some very courageous young people showing leadership.

View on YouTube

Panel discussion Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 7 pm. In person at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 2592 W.14 St, Cleveland, OH 44113 and on Zoom

Panelists:
Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association, Washington, DC
Terry Lodge, Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition and Cleveland Peace Action
Kenneth Mayers, Co-founder, Santa Fe Chapter, Veterans for Peace