יזכור

Tonight marks Holocaust Remembrance in Israel and in the global Jewish community. Tonight in Israel and throughout the diaspora candles will be lit and prayers will be said for all those who have had their souls rise to the heavens on plumes of black smoke.

I am the grandson and great-grandson of holocaust survivors, Warsaw ghetto uprisers, and Partisans. I am also the grandson and great-grandson of holocaust victims. As a Jewish gay man, I recite the prayers not only for my family, but for the murdered gay men who left behind no children and no family to pray for them…whose names, too often, go unremembered and unmentioned throughout the continually and rapidly turning pages of history.

יזכור…

…Yizkor…

…remembrance.