Dear Tanenbaum Community,
January 27th, 2026, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. One of this year’s themes from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is Bridging Generations, highlighting our responsibility to carry memory forward with care, honesty, and purpose.
Bridging Generations underscores that remembrance is not static. As I wrote in Teaching the Holocaust: Why Education Fosters Empathy, Holocaust education is not solely about understanding what happened, it is about using that knowledge to foster empathy. Teaching this history helps learners confront the consequences of indifference and challenge narratives that fuel prejudice and violence. Education, when done with care and context, becomes a bridge between one generation’s experience and the next generation’s ability to carry those lessons forward to create a more peaceful future.
Last spring, our staff visited Tanenbaum’s Network of Inclusive Educators member Mary Houghtaling’s Holocaust and Genocide Research Center. Her students shared how studying the Holocaust and the history of genocides has helped them develop a deeper sense of responsibility and empathy. They learned not only to remember history, but to also stand up for dignity, justice, and human rights in their own communities.
Holocaust Remembrance Day calls us to honor the lives lost, including Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Roma people, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and others targeted by Nazi persecution, as well as the survivors who bore witness. With approximately 200,000 Holocaust survivors left, it is our responsibility to safeguard their testimony for future generations. I think of Alex Kleytman, the 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who died shielding his wife during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting.
Bridging generations means ensuring that memory does not fade into abstraction, but remains connected to values, including respect for difference and the protection of human dignity.
To learn more about the Holocaust, explore our fact sheet on the Holocaust. If you’d like to take part in an event in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, please consider the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center’s online event, MemoryKeeper Story Hour: Grace Kalfus. Additionally, the United Nations will host Holocaust Memorial Observance 2026, sharing testimonies from Holocaust survivors.
Remembering with you,
Rev. Mark Fowler, CEO, TanenbaumÂ