The one question I heard over and over again {about the shootings at Columbine High School} was Why? Why! Why! Why! Isn't this the question Jewish people have been asking for almost sixty years? The answer most helpful to me is; we do not know G-d's ways. How can we be so presumptuous, as to ask the A-mighty, What were you thinking of? Or, Did these innocent children of Columbine High School and our six million brethren have to die as you looked on and did nothing? Isn't that what we're insinuating when we question G-d with our Why's? We don't know G-d's ultimate plans for us and for the world we live in. Hard as it is for us to grasp this concept, the tragedy at Columbine took place in a day, while the Holocaust, as defined, lasted twelve years. These instances are but a blink of the eye when comparing G-d's overall plan for our universe, which has existed for thousands of years.

Why is it so hard for us to understand?
It is difficult because we lived through it. We were on earth when it happened, and to us it's real. To the loving parents of these children it is real because they have to bury them. They have to walk into those empty bedrooms with all the past memories. For the parents as for us, these murdered souls are not some names and some numbers from some disaster like the San Francisco or Pompeii earthquakes. These senseless acts happened to them and to us, the Jewish people. We were here / there and had to witness them. I'm sure I speak for all of us when saying that our entire group of Holocaust survivors empathizes with the grieving parents, grandparents, classmates, and send our sincere condolences. In the words of our Rabbium, "May Hashem comfort and console all the bereaved among us."

Rudy Jacobson is a a member of the Rocky Mountain Regional Gathering of Jewish Child Survivors of World War II. This article from their newsletter was submitted and republished with permission.

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