Holocaust Remembrance Day returns this year. And with it, our national rituals.
Television schedules shift. A siren echoes through the streets. Candles are lit.
Testimonies are heard. Tears are shed.
But when the words end, life resumes.
And our leaders return to complacency. As if nothing happened. As if nothing was learned.
As if we can afford another Holocaust, this time without trains, without ghettos, without yellow stars.
Just technology, hate, nuclear ambition, and the illusion of security.
That’s where the failure lies.
Holocaust Remembrance Day has become a day of empty ceremony, instead of a day of national responsibility.
The State of Israel wasn’t founded as a prize. It wasn’t created as compensation.
It was built as a strategic response to a tragedy, to the absence of a state, of protection, of leadership.
We were a people with no shield, no government, no army. That’s what enabled the horror.
That’s what allowed the murder of six million Jews. Israel was supposed to be, first and foremost, a shield. A wall of defense. A safe haven for the Jewish people.
What happened?
Decades passed. We grew strong. We built power.
And with that power, we developed a concept.
A dangerous concept.
The idea that Israel is no longer at risk. That our enemies have been deterred.
That the world has changed.
That today’s antisemitism isn’t the same. That today’s Islam isn’t the same.
And so, we let down our guard. We lowered our defenses.
We convinced ourselves the danger was behind us.
An entire generation of leaders – across politics, defense, public service, media, courts, and even the protest movements stood each year in solemn silence and declared “Never Again.”
But they forgot what that vow actually means.
They quoted. They wept.
But they didn’t protect. They didn’t prepare. They didn’t stand in the breach.
And then came the slap in the face. October 7.
A brutal reminder that the danger never left. It was always here.
We simply refused to see it.
The people woke up. We stood tall. We united.
But the leadership?
They remained stuck on October 6 – frozen, fearful, paralyzed. As if they bear no responsibility. As if failure comes without cost.
We must learn from the failures of the past
This year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, memory is not enough.
We cannot afford to repeat the failure.
No more words, we need action.
No more tears, we need decisions.
No more ceremonies, we need deep repair.
No more “commemoration,” we need a reckoning.
We must understand this:
Israel lives in a state of eternal existential threat.
“Never Again” is not a slogan. It’s a demand.
A demand to raise a new generation of leaders.
Leaders who understand that sovereignty is a sacred duty.
Leaders who remember what the old guard forgot. That Israel’s threats have not vanished.
We must fight for this country every single day.
Israel cannot depend on the mercy of others, not America, not the UN, and not fantasies of peace agreements.
The threats are clear.
Radical Islam, an army of hatred spreading like wildfire.
Antisemitism, returning across Europe, the US, on campuses, online.
A declining American empire, leaving us without a clear umbrella.
Internal division. Economic inequality. A deep erosion of trust in our institutions.
And all of this – after the Holocaust. After we swore: “Never again.”
So this year, let us remember, but not stop at remembrance.
Let us mourn, but not stop at mourning. Let us stand for the siren, and rise to act so that this day becomes more than a ritual.
So that 20 years from now, we won’t ask again: How did we let it happen?
Because the failure of Holocaust Remembrance Day was never in forgetting. It was in failing to learn.
And this year, we must make it right.
The writer is an Israeli businessman, thought leader, and founder of the Israel Tomorrow forum.