By Mikhail Neshevets
March 26, 2015
Starting this year, all who profess Judaism will celebrate a new religious holiday called "Yom Shihrur ve Atsala" ("Day of Salvation and Liberation"). It is dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
All the holidays in the Jewish calendar - Pesach, Hanukkah, Purim and others were established by the Torah or the prophets, and no one could even think about changes before. But a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, head of the Mountain Jews Fund German Zakharyaev came up with such a proposal and found support from the chief rabbis of Israel.
“I pursued two goals,” German Zakharyaev told Metro. – Firstly, to preserve Victory Day for centuries, so that every generation of Jews celebrates this day every year and thanks the Red Army and its allies for their salvation and deliverance from the threat of annihilation, and secondly, so that Jews can say no to attempts to revise the results of the Great Patriotic War, call into question the decisive role of Soviet soldiers in the defeat of fascism. After all, if the Red Army had not defeated fascism, our people would not have existed in the world.
The appearance of a religious holiday actually means that the rabbis came to the conclusion that Victory Day has a divine nature, the Lord himself, through the hands of the soldiers of the Red Army, saved the people of Israel from complete extermination.
According to German Zakharyaev, in no case will a religious holiday replace a secular one, but will become an organic addition to it. On May 9, veterans in Israel, Russia, and all over the world will celebrate the usual holiday, and on Iyar 26, special prayers will also be heard in synagogues glorifying the soldiers-liberators.
Source: https://www.metronews.ru/novosti/world/reviews/den-pobedy-stal-religioznym-evreyskim-prazdnikom-1163247/
By Mikhail Neshevets
March 26, 2015
Starting this year, all who profess Judaism will celebrate a new religious holiday called "Yom Shihrur ve Atsala" ("Day of Salvation and Liberation"). It is dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
All the holidays in the Jewish calendar - Pesach, Hanukkah, Purim and others were established by the Torah or the prophets, and no one could even think about changes before. But a member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, head of the Mountain Jews Fund German Zakharyaev came up with such a proposal and found support from the chief rabbis of Israel.
“I pursued two goals,” German Zakharyaev told Metro. – Firstly, to preserve Victory Day for centuries, so that every generation of Jews celebrates this day every year and thanks the Red Army and its allies for their salvation and deliverance from the threat of annihilation, and secondly, so that Jews can say no to attempts to revise the results of the Great Patriotic War, call into question the decisive role of Soviet soldiers in the defeat of fascism. After all, if the Red Army had not defeated fascism, our people would not have existed in the world.
The appearance of a religious holiday actually means that the rabbis came to the conclusion that Victory Day has a divine nature, the Lord himself, through the hands of the soldiers of the Red Army, saved the people of Israel from complete extermination.
According to German Zakharyaev, in no case will a religious holiday replace a secular one, but will become an organic addition to it. On May 9, veterans in Israel, Russia, and all over the world will celebrate the usual holiday, and on Iyar 26, special prayers will also be heard in synagogues glorifying the soldiers-liberators.
Source: https://www.metronews.ru/novosti/world/reviews/den-pobedy-stal-religioznym-evreyskim-prazdnikom-1163247/
