“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, in Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1
A shocking study released in 2018 during the week of Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, revealed that the horrors of the Holocaust are being erased from people’s minds—especially the young. The survey revealed the two-thirds of American millennials (those aged between 22 and 37) could not identify what Auschwitz was. Perhaps even more startling was the revelation that more than one of every five millennials said that they either had not heard of the Holocaust or were not sure whether they had heard of it.
This news coupled with the rising tide of anti-Semitic threats and attacks in Europe, Africa, Asia, and even here in America, is a grim warning for the future. There are no guarantees that the horrors of the past will not be repeated. If the spirit and knowledge that motivated the pledge “Never Again” are forgotten, the evil that motivated the last attempt to destroy the Jewish people will return to power and attempt to finish the job.
The lack of knowledge about the Holocaust is partly the result of the success of Israel’s enemies in denying and downplaying the horrors of Hitler’s plot to exterminate the Jewish people. Partly it is the result of the passage of time. More than 70 years have gone by since the final death camps were liberated in 1945 and the wholesale slaughter brought to an end. And finally, this tragic lack of knowledge is partly from a failure of any particular plan to reach future generations with the truth.
The only major Christian ministry working to educate and activate millennials to support Israel is your Jerusalem Prayer Team. The wonderful news is that a huge portion of our online members are millennials who have taken up the cause of supporting Israel. Make no mistake—this is a crucial battle for Israel’s future. Today’s college and university campuses are hotbeds of anti-Semitism. If we sleep, the next generation of leaders will turn against Israel. There must be a powerful online program to educate and activate millennials…and that is exactly what we are doing.
