I am writing as a child of Holocaust survivors to express my deep and sincere appreciation to Mayor Randy Sparacino and the Medford City Council for dedicating the week of Nov 19- 25 as Antisemitism Awareness Week.

I am 72 years old, and have always defined myself as a child of Holocaust survivors. If you asked at what age I learned that I was a child of Holocaust survivors, I would say in utero — it is so deeply ingrained. My parents fled Poland into Russia as the Nazis invaded and were shipped by Stalin to Siberia (the family legend has it that they met on the train to Siberia) where my parents spent the war years until slowly making their way back West. My father was a tailor, and his skill with the cloth gave him favor, at times, with Russian officers. Somehow my father’s Singer treadle sewing machine, as cumbersome as it might be, survived his arduous journey to the New World.

My sister was born in Tashkent in 1944, my brother in a relocation camp in Germany in 1949, and I was born in the Bronx in 1951 shortly after they came over to the U.S.

I grew up in the Fairfax district of West Hollywood, just south of Melrose — but having no relationship to the TV series “Melrose Place.” My mother — the original “Mrs. Maizels,” was the antithesis of the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in the recent popular streaming series. Nothing hip about her. My folks spoke Russian and Polish at the dinner table, Yiddish if they wanted to include us in their conversation. Many of their friends had the prisoner numbers from the concentration camps tattooed on their forearm. Somehow I never thought of myself as living in a world of antisemitism, but I was of course naïve.

The military response of Israel to the Hamas attacks has not only sparked the recent wave of violence towards Jews, but has caused concern among Jews around the world for the innocent victims of war on both sides of this eternal conflict. My parents saw the world in terms of Jews and non-Jews. I realized as a teen that I did not share that world view. That while always a Jew, I felt connected to the larger family of humanity as a whole. I discovered Eastern wisdom while in college, and that wisdom resonated with me. Compassion — including self-compassion — are guiding principles.

I am currently involved in a project to raise awareness about antisemitism. But I don’t know how to combat hatred against one group, one people, without combating hatred toward all people. My personal vision is that one day there will be a day where all people who have been victims of hate — Native Americans, Afro-Americans, ethnic victims around the world, gender victims and so many others — may come together and stand together with a unity: That “we are all one.”

At the same time, “We shall never forget” encapsulates the dedication of Jews around the world to carry in memory the horrors of the Holocaust. There will be a day in the next 20 years or so that the last survivor of the Holocaust will perish. We cannot allow the world to forget. The city of Medford’s proclamation of Antisemitism Awareness Week is a beacon of light and hope.

Thank you again.