When Holocaust Remembrance Day meets parenting far from home.

Holocaust Remembrance Day – Far from Home.

Holocaust Remembrance Day has always been a challenging day for me.

As a teacher in the education system, I often felt it was too much for the young children.

What do they have to do with the Holocaust? How could I pass on the knowledge and the meaning — without harming their delicate souls and without raising them with a sense of persecution just because they are Jewish?

In Israel, the Holocaust is present everywhere.It’s an inseparable part of our cultural discourse.

"My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor," "We came to Israel after the Holocaust"...

At schools, there are ceremonies; on the radio, sad songs are played; and on television — testimonies, movies, and stories — on every channel.

During our first year in Madrid, I felt a certain relief.A sense of release.

Wonderful — we didn’t have to be surrounded by it 24 hours a day.

I watched one or two programs from Israeli television, and that was enough.

Life went on. Spanish songs played on the radio.

I picked up the kids from school without them wearing white, without their eyes wide and sad, and especially without them needing to try and process stories about death they couldn’t really understand…

But today, after almost four years in Madrid, I realize — I cannot spare my children the knowledge and the meaning of being part of our people.

This is the history of our nation, and it is my responsibility to make sure they know the collective story — and also our own personal family stories, of which, sadly, there are many.

I realized that if I don't make the effort to tell them the story of our people, they might grow up not knowing it. Maybe even believing it didn’t really happen.

Suddenly, I understood how many concepts Israeli children learn naturally and clearly —and my children may never know:

Ghetto, Righteous Among the Nations, Concentration Camp, Partisans…

They won’t learn about it in school in Madrid, and even if they study World War II, it’s clear they won't learn it from the perspective of our people.

The important realization for me was that if I — if we — don't stop, talk, clarify, explain —

they might lose their connection to their roots. And that would be a heavy loss, both for them and for us.

I want to raise my children with pride in their Judaism, with a deep understanding of what the State of Israel means to us — even if we have chosen, for now, to live elsewhere.

I want them to know the past, understand the present — and walk into the future with a strong identity, a sense of belonging, and pride.

This is the second year we are organizing a "Zikaron BaSalon" (Memory in the Living Room) for teens and their parents here in Madrid.

This pause, this dedication of time to telling our people's story, to family unity — and giving each family the space to share their own story —is critical.

It creates a sense of belonging, and above all —it builds identity — even from afar.

"A nation that does not know its past, its present is poor, and its future is shrouded in mist."— Yigal Allon

This is why a rich, educational Israeli community, offering programming for every age group from 3–18, is so vital for rooting identity, belonging, and the worldview we seek to impart.

@OFEK School @Bar/Bat Mitzvah programs @“Hallelujah” – Youth Leadership Project

See you in the community ❤️