I visited Pittsburgh many years ago, and I sensed a feeling of community. I spent most of my life in the New York metropolitan area, so being Jewish doesn’t make you feel like an outsider or threatened. Those days are over. I imagined myself back in Nazi Germany in the ‘30s while Hitler’s words bellowed in the air.

The tragedy is that history can repeat itself. We cannot be deaf, dumb and blind to the rise of hateful words and, even worse, hateful deeds. I am reminded of Elie Wiesel’s closing words at the first meeting of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust in February 1979. He said, “I don’t know what we accomplished today, but we all said oy. Let’s turn oy into deeds to protect the Jewish community. We have no choice.”

STEVEN A. LUDSIN
East Hampton, N.Y.

The writer was a member of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and the first U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which built the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.