As a Holocaust author and researcher, I appreciate a thorough examination of morality. Darkness, hatred and fear are common characteristics of human nature. Holocaust victims were faced with perfidious forces, deceit, brutality, cruelty, starvation, sickness and the death of loved-ones. Terror was the daily companion of concentration camp prisoners. What culture could allow this to happen to innocent men, women and children? How did so many people go along with this horrific plan to isolate and exterminate the Jews of Europe? How could millions more turn their backs to the immorality of using camps to exterminate an entire religious group? Some people were unaware of the nightmare on the other side of the fence. But, most Europeans (especially in Poland and Germany) could smell death regularly. The scent of burning flesh wafted over Eastern Europe for years, during the early–to-mid 1940’s. These people allowed Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jewish population – men, women and children. They lifted no finger to stand in the way. Many individuals saved Jews (especially Jewish children) at great risk to themselves. But they were the exception, not the rule. We learn nothing about ourselves if we do not examine this dark part of our psyche.

It is safe to say that large portions of the European population in the early 20th century disliked Jews. Pogroms were ubiquitous and largely ignored by society, the police and armed forces. In fact, in some pogroms the armed forces cooperated (Einsatzgruppen, Cossacks, etc.). Jews were significantly mistrusted, disliked and ostracized. They were the butt of jokes and the subject of innuendo. Yet, Jews represented no threat of any reasonable nature or definition to Europeans. At that time, Jews amounted to about 2% of the population in Europe; they possessed a very small percentage of the money, influenced no governments and had no armed forces or militia. They could not have been a threat to any potion of gentile Europe if they had wanted to. So, why did so many Europeans hate Jews? How could so many people find it easy to loathe millions whom they knew nothing about and that they had never met? Were they automatons, eagerly lapping up propaganda drivel proffered by Nazis? Or, were they intelligent humans, with the capacity to comprehend nuances of their society’s actions and still reach the conclusion that Jews were bad people who deserved to be rounded up, incarcerated and annihilated? Yes, these people acted in evil ways. But, what precipitated the hate? Was it a genetic predisposition or evil acquired later in life?

We are complex beings. I believe that there is a great deal more to us than the ubiquitous battleground of good versus evil. Most of us are not one or the other, but both. We are beautiful and ugly, soothing and terrifying, brutal and caring; we love and we despise. Unlike animals, humans are governed by principles and moral beliefs. We are not motivated by delusions of morality, as much as governed by them. So what brings a person to despise a stranger? Why do some people hate and fear those who are different in color, religion or ethnic origin? Why do so many people find it easier to hate than to tolerate?

My instinct tells me that some people acquire racism because they were taught at a young age to hate, by parents, siblings, relatives, friends or any other portion of their social network. At some point in their juvenile existence, they learned to despise minorities from people close to them. And, many of these racists continue to hate without questioning the veracity of their loathing. Being recognized as a bigot makes some individuals popular with desired social groups. Research reveals that a high percentage of racists are poorly educated. Yet, not all racists are ignorant or mentally slow. Some people with a postgraduate education delude themselves with manifestations of detestation towards minority groups. The dark side is filled with ignorance and dec

Each Passover, Jews retell the story of the exodus from Egypt.  This is a story of a people who emerged from slavery to freedom and from oppression to liberty.  The Passover story gives us pause to reflect upon a spiritual adventure that began with Moses and ended in the promised land of Israel.  It fabricates the basis of contemporary Judaism and Christianity.  The Passover story describes the Jews’ seemingly insurmountable victory over a vastly superior enemy, a tale of wandering in the wilderness and of redemption with God’s Ten Commandments.  Those Ten Commandments lie at the heart of contemporary Judeo-Christian beliefs.  They are the groundwork of our morality and the foundation of desired ethical behavior.  And, when the Jews wandered for forty years in the wilderness – when they became idolaters and lost their moral compass, it was the Ten Commandments that brought them back, figuratively and literally.

Like the victory of the Hebrew Maccabi, the exodus from Egypt seemed impossible.  Yet, somehow the Jews survived.  In every generation, the enemies of the Hebrew nation have attempted to annihilate them.  Time after time, the Jews have been defeated, evicted and enslaved.  Yet, each time, they manage to survive as a people.  Each time, they return to Israel from the Diaspora.  The rallying cry at each Passover Seder is, “Next Year in Jerusalem.”  Every Jew is bound to retell the Passover story each year as though it was happening to them.  And the physical focus for this goal is always the land of Israel.  Despite the fact that Jews are less than 2% of the global religious community, they somehow manage to survive and maintain their hold upon this tiny fragment of land.  Today, surrounded by enemies, the Hebrew nation is in the same predicament.  How do they survive?  How does their spirit continue through pogroms and genocide?  And, what is the true meaning of Passover?

Persecution is intensely malevolent and pervasive.  Humans are particularly wicked with each other.  Three thousand years ago, Moses pleaded with Pharaoh to free his people from persecution and slavery.  The ten plagues that followed forced him to release the Jews.  Yet even after the worst plague of all, the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt, Pharaoh pursued the Jews into the Red Sea, where his soldiers were swept away.  Evil can be just as powerful a motivator as love is.  During the Spanish Inquisition, anyone suspected of being a Jew was imprisoned, tortured and put to death.  Nazi Germany systematically annihilated millions of Jews.  What purpose is served by inflicting pain and suffering upon innocent people?  What promotes such evil hatred?  Why is animosity aimed at the Jewish people?  And, how do the Jews manage to survive repeated attempts to destroy them?

Like Easter, Passover occurs each year in the springtime.  The concept of renaissance is ubiquit