Virtually every year, I write a blog on Holocaust Remembrance.  This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) is on April 14, 2026.

I feel a greater sense of urgency this year as we are experiencing an alarming rise of antisemitism.    The Anti-Defamation League has been tracking antisemitic incidents since 1979, and each of the past few years has broken the prior year’s record for reported antisemitic incidents.  Bottom  line: antisemitism has not been this bad since the Holocaust.

Years ago, I wrote about how the hate rarely stops at “mere” words.  And, it has not. We have seen “polite” antisemitism morph into verbal harassment, physical violence and even murder.

Specific to the topic of this blog, contemporary antisemitism also includes holocaust denial and distortion. This occurs where individuals deny the existence or extent of the holocaust or claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot or conspiracy to advance Jewish interests.

Holocaust denial and distortion is not limited to the extreme left and extreme right. Perhaps a product more of ignorance than hate, it is increasingly common among young people who are not taught the reality of the Holocaust and learn about it from virulent antisemites on social media.  

The facts are as follows: during the Holocaust, more than 11 million human beings were systemically murdered.  Millions more died fighting Hitler and his genocidal machine.

Every life is precious and matters equally.  At the same time, the Holocaust had a disproportionate effect on the European Jewish community. Six out of nine million European Jews were murdered—the percentage is beyond staggering.

Inevitably some ask: but what does this have to do with work?  Let me suggest at least two connections.

First, the Holocaust has affected some employees directly, and it is important to recognize this connection.  I acknowledge this is very personal to me as most of my grandparents’ family members were killed in the Holocaust.   Acknowledging the Holocaust may help to increase the sense of belonging among Jewish employees.   

Second, Holocaust Remembrance can play an important role in tempering antisemitism. Studies show that individuals who are aware of the horrors of the Holocaust are less likely to harbor antisemitic attitudes.  To the extent the remembrance includes some education, it may help to decrease an employer’s legal exposure by reducing the amount of antisemitic venom spewed in the workplace. 

So what can you and your employer do?

Please consider posting on your Intranet a remembrance statement.  A short message can go a long way.

Invite a survivor to speak or share a video of a survivor who no longer is with us. Bear witness to someone who did.

Host an inclusion event regarding the Holocaust in particular and antisemitism in general. 

For other ideas, check out:  https://www.ushmm.org/remember/days-of-remembrance.

On a personal level, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, I will participate in my synagogue in the reading of the names of those murdered. I have obtained names from the website of the United States Holocaust Museum. I will supplement the list with family names.   

I close by quoting Holocaust Survivor and Noble Prize Winner Elie Wiesel: “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” We cannot forget them.