WE ARE LIVING THROUGH SOME OF THE DARKEST TIMES FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN LIVING MEMORY.

The Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, was Nazi Germany’s organized prelude to the Holocaust. Despite the street carnage and incarceration of thousands of Jewish men in concentration camps, few governments around the world condemned—or acknowledged—the modern pogrom perpetrated on German Jews the night of November 9, 1938. Only the United States recalled its ambassador to Germany in protest.

Eight decades after Kristallnacht, Jews and the Jewish state are again in the crosshairs of antisemites and their apologists. In the U.S., for example, synagogues are regularly torched, while Jewish students are increasingly isolated on college campuses. Support for Israel among young adults is at an all-time low, and so is young adults’ knowledge of World War II and the Holocaust. A significant portion of Americans believe the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, were greatly exaggerated—or invented—by Israel.

This year’s commemoration of Kristallnacht is an opportunity to “Spread the Light,” which is the name of an Israeli initiative for synagogues and other Jewish buildings to keep their lights on during Kristallnacht. The StandWithUs Holocaust Education Center (HEC) is proud to partner with Spread the Light and its mission of elevating resilience and Jewish unity while commemorating Kristallnacht.

The creators of Spread the Light are available to speak (on Zoom) to your group, class, or school about the project.