Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, Captain, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy (Retired) opened the Senate Session on
April 29, 2003--the 2003 commemoration of Yom HaShoa/Holocaust Remembrance Day-- with the
following prayer:
Almighty God, this week we remember nightmares, to reaffirm our dreams. On this
Holocaust Remembrance Day--during this week we've set aside--our nation recalls
victims of the Holocaust: a holocaust brave Americans took up arms to fight, and many
gave their lives to end. And so, before this session starts, and during a time when our
brave men and women still risk their lives for better times, we pray the day will come
when the lesson of this horror--the lessons of all nightmares--help make our dreams of
peace come true.
From the Holocaust we learn: when human beings deny humanity in others, they
destroy humanity within themselves. When they reject the human in a neighbor's soul,
then they unleash the beast, and the barbaric, in their own hearts.
And so, remembering we pray: if the time has not yet dawned when we can all proclaim
our faith in God, then let us say at least that we admit we are not gods ourselves. If we
cannot yet see the face of God in others, then let us see, at least, a face as human as our
own.
You taught us through the Bible that life might be a blessing or a curse: the choice is in
our hands. So many people, so many peoples, have felt the curse of life too filled with
cruelty, and violence, and hate. As Americans we pray--we vow--to keep alive the
dream of better times; to keep our faith that we can be, will be, a force for good; a force
for hope; a force for freedom; a blessing, not a curse--to all our people; to all the world.
And let us say, Amen.