As you explore this and other linked sites, you will be constantly confronted
with difficult, painful, complex questions and images. Is our purpose here on this
web site to create sorrow, despair, or guilt? While these feelings are natural reactions,
with moral and psychological importance, that is in no way our main purpose.
We are here, as we believe you are here, to help to create a better world. Clearly
the issues of racism, violence, and ignorance must be addressed. They touch all
of us. They put all of us in danger. In some cases and for some of us, they put
our very lives in danger. But for every one of us, they endanger and diminish the
quality of our freedom, and the scope of our personal aspirations. Surely the Shoah
(or the Holocaust, as it is often called) can act as an important landmark for us
in this area.
But the Shoah has even greater importance to us, right now and for the future.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Shoah can be seen as the most important
event in the 20th century. Let me explain why I say that.
The dominating theme of the 20th century is the conflict between freedom and
oppression, between human dignity and human degradation. This conflict is played
out in every aspect of our lives. In the political arena it spans the spectrum between
democracy and dictatorship. We experience it through the wonders of science, that
improve and broaden our lives, and the terrors of science used for warfare, violence,
and ruthless surveillance. We experience it through spiritual enlightenment and
its opposite, religious intolerance. Even in the area of personal and intimate relations,
our dignity is threatened by historical and institutional intolerance of gender,
race and religion.
Freedom and its counterpart, human dignity, are the most preciousvalues we hold
here in Canada. But because our country has beenrelatively free and just, it does
not mean it will always be free, or thatwe will always have the strength to uphold
human rights. We have failed to hold these values in the past, and we can be sure
the future will bring new, serious, and potentially disastrous challenges to us who
enjoy freedom. Even in these days our wealth and education have not spared us from
acts of extreme bigotry and groups committed to spreading hatred. Neither should
we underestimate the danger that powerful governments and industrial complexes represent.
The Shoah, or Holocaust, reflects on every aspect of our personal and public
lives. It shows us the extremes to which societies and governments can swing. In
it we see the political collapse of a free and democratic Germany. We see science
run amok for the exclusive sake of violence and hatred. We see the value and dignity
of human life reduced to ruin. We see the unconditional failure of religious institutions
to fulfill their most basic missions. We see a world overwhelmed by terror and atrocity.
In different ways and in many places today in the world some or all of these
kinds of disasters are happening. We are not immune from them here, either. No
one, anywhere is.
That is why we have built this HopeSite. We are here, in our own small way,
trying to build a better world. We invite you to join us. We cannot think of a
more positive thing to do to celebrate the freedom we enjoy, and the human dignity
we must never take for granted.
