Jewish people around the world have commemorated Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, for 87 years. It is customary during the commemorations to honor the stories of Holocaust survivors who lived through the Nazi attack on Jewish families and their property in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.
Broken glass from homes, Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues littered the streets after the violence, which was a prelude to the Holocaust.
Congregation Shaaray Shalom, the Jewish Community Center of West Hempstead, observed the somber anniversary during Shabbat Services last Saturday. At this year’s commemoration, Mindy Perlmutter, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Long Island, reflected on Kristallnacht, the Holocaust and their connection to antisemitism today.
“To remember is not simply to look back in our grief,” Perlmutter said. “Our memory must move us forward. We are asked not just to dwell on pain, but to draw out meaning, courage and responsibility. Memory is the bridge from suffering to hope. The call reminds us of what can happen when good people fall silent.”
The JCRC-LI is a regional organization that connects Jewish communities across Long Island to ensure that Jewish people have a voice and can collaborate with local leaders. It also hosts a range of events focused on Jewish culture, organizes trips to Israel and raises awareness of antisemitism.
“Remembrance for us is a sacred covenant,” Perlmutter said. “We are here to bear witness. When we recall Kristallnacht, we must not only remember what happened, but how it happened.
“Neighbors looked away,” she continued. “Police officers stood by. Firefighters protected only non-Jewish property. The world turned from our suffering, and that silence allowed evil to spread.”
Perlmutter explained that Kristallnacht was the result of several years of propaganda that targeted the Jewish people, which included discriminatory laws, the boycotting of Jewish businesses, and antisemitic reports and discussions in newspapers, on radio, in classrooms and in the political realm.
“By 1938, the silence when the mobs attacked sent the message, the world will not intervene,” she said. “And yet out of those ashes sprang rebirth. Even when surrounded by broken glass and ruin, our people held on to hope.”
Perlmutter asked attendees to reflect on what people have learned since Kristallnacht.
“As executive director of Jewish Community Relations Council of Long Island, this is not just history for me,” she said. “It is the challenge of every day. We work to build understanding between neighbors, faiths and institutions, and yet I cannot remember a time when antisemitism has felt so sharp, so public and so hard as it does today.”
The Anti-Defamation League has recording over 10,000 antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including verbal or written harassment, vandalism and physical assault. Many have taken place on college campuses or at Jewish institutions, such as synagogues and community centers.
“What endangers us now is not only those who spread antisemitism,” Perlmutter said, “but those content to ignore it, excuse it, or minimize it.
“When antisemitism rises on the right, the left or anywhere in between,” she added, “our answer cannot be to despair, but to respond with moral clarity. Not for ourselves alone, but for the sake of the whole society, the health of democracy.”
JCRC-LI works with schools to teach about antisemitism, and brings elected officials, police and community leaders together to confront hate. It emphasizes interfaith connections and building strong community relationships in order to build understanding.
“History is clear,” Perlmutter said. “Silence and isolation are dangerous. When synagogues burned on Kristallnacht, many churches were silent. When Jewish businesses were boycotted, few neighbors stood with us. That is why we work so hard to build strong relationships, so that when threats come, we are not alone.”
“The broken glass from that night still glints in our memory,” she said. “But so does the light that followed, the survivors who rebuilt their lives, communities reborn, children and grandchildren filling synagogues, learning, living as Jews with pride. Our task is to carry both realities, the honor of pain and to nurture the hope.”
