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During World War II, a German church stood near a set of railroad tracks.
Every Sunday morning, the congregation gathered to worship. But as they sang, a horrifying sound began to echo from outside. Trains packed with Jewish men, women, and children were rolling past on their way to concentration camps.
From inside the cattle cars, the prisoners cried out for water and screamed for mercy.
The church members could hear them clearly.
Instead of stopping the service to help, the church leadership gave a chilling command:
"Sing a little louder." They raised their voices and played the organ harder, using their hymns to drown out the cries of the suffering until the train passed.
This story, recorded by author Penny Lea, is a devastating critique of what happens when religious ritual replaces actual righteousness.
It is a modern echo of the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). When Jesus defined what it truly means to "love thy neighbor," He explicitly exposed how religious leadership often acts. Both the priest and the Levite,consumed by their religious duties and maintaining their comfort,walked right past the bleeding, dying man on the side of the road. They went on with their business, ignoring the one who needed help. Instead the least expected to help did, therefore fulfilling God’s command. So who loved thy neighbor and who fulfilled the Torah ?
Like those religious leaders, this Christian church at the tracks chose ritual over love and rescue.
But the Scriptures are clear that true faith requires action:
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute." — Proverbs 31:8
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" — 1 John 3:17
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals... Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" — Amos 5:21, 23-24
Jesus didn't call his followers to drown out the suffering of the world with beautiful music;
He called them to cross the road, touch the broken, and defend the helpless.
Silence in the face of evil is complicity. May we never be a people who simply sing a little louder.
🎥 Watch the powerful 12-minute short film inspired by this story on the YouTube Short Film Link or check out the KingdomWorks Studios Page.
Sing a Little Louder (Persecuted Church) youtu.be/ofcs9Y7qL4s?si=RSkO… via @YouTube
#Faith #Holocaust #History #Christianity #NeverForget #Justice #GoodSamaritan
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
I'm so sorry to hear she passed and so suddenly. Baruch Dayan Ha'Emet. My heart goes out to her family and all close to her 🙏🏼😪
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Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Spiritual Resistance and the Preservation of the Jewish Identity During the Holocaust
1/3 The Hanukkah Menorah in the Window: A Symbol of Righteous Defiance
One of the most powerful images associated with Jewish resistance to Nazism is the photograph of a Hanukkah menorah displayed in a window facing a Nazi flag in Kiel, Germany. The photograph was taken by Rachel Posner, the wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner, during Hanukkah in December 1931. Across the street, a large Nazi flag represented the growing influence of a movement that openly promoted antisemitism and threatened the future of German Jewry (Yad Vashem, n.d.).
The significance of this image goes beyond the objects visible in the photograph. The menorah represents Jewish faith, history, and the determination to preserve a cultural identity in the face of growing hostility. Its position opposite the Nazi flag creates a striking contrast between a Jewish family maintaining its traditions and a political movement seeking to exclude and persecute Jews.
On the back of the photograph, Rachel Posner wrote a message that captured this contrast: “Death to Judah, so the flag says. Judah lives forever, so the light answers” (Deutsche Welle, 2022). Her words transformed an ordinary family photograph into a statement of hope and resistance. The light of the menorah became a response to the hatred represented by the flag.
As the Nazi threat intensified, the Posner family left Germany for Palestine in 1933, taking their menorah with them. The historic object was later preserved by Yad Vashem, Israel's World Holocaust Remembrance Center. In December 2022, members of the Posner family returned the menorah to Germany for a Hanukkah commemoration, where it was lit at Bellevue Palace alongside German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Deutsche Welle, 2022).
This episode illustrates how resistance does not always take the form of physical confrontation. Sometimes, it consists of preserving one's beliefs, refusing to surrender one's identity, and maintaining hope when the surrounding society becomes increasingly hostile.
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
On 9 November 1938, Nazi violence swept across Germany and Austria.
Synagogues were burned, Jewish homes and businesses destroyed, Jews murdered and around 30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps.
Kristallnacht marked a turning point in the persecution of European Jews.
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Earlier today, a man walked through Bingo, a crowded grocery store in the Five towns and yelled antisemitic slurs, scaring shoppers who were there with their families, for the crime of trying to purchase groceries.
The man yelled “K$ll all the Jews,” “Heil H#tler” and other assorted hate speech including “Free Palestine,’ all while simulating a rife firing gesture at the Jewish customers.
People Like Hassan Piker encourage this behavior and I’m sure that the newly minted Senator El Sayed will justify this behavior with “hurt people hurt people.’
Does anyone see Jews targeting Muslims with threatening behavior because of “Palestine and Hamas?”
They will not win. Hate never does.
When the rest of the world wakes up, there will be no dogs and no Jews left in NY and everyone will have to submit to Islam, which LITERALLY means “submission.”
(sound familiar?)
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Oh no! How very sad. May her memory be a blessing. A lovely, lovely person. 💔🕯️
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Definitely worth reading!
As @ForeverIsrael7 (Ana) said:
"Through her words and her work, Lisa’s legacy will live on forever."
May Lisa's memory forever be a blessing.🕯
With a child of course.
"Miluyim, day #662 – We have just stopped an Israeli Arab motorist at the Beitar Illit checkpoint who tried to bring two potential terrorists into Israel 🇮🇱."
Those aren't elite soldiers. At least, not every day.
They're our brothers, our spouses, our parents.
And they save lives every day.
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Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
"Miluyim, day #662 – We have just stopped an Israeli Arab motorist at the Beitar Illit checkpoint who tried to bring two potential terrorists into Israel 🇮🇱."
Those aren't elite soldiers. At least, not every day.
They're our brothers, our spouses, our parents.
And they save lives every day.
Miluyim, day #662 – On vient à l'instant d'arrêter un automobiliste arabe israélien au checkpoint de Beitar Illit, qui a tenté de faire passer deux potentiels terroristes en Israël 🇮🇱.
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Sometimes something good happens, and our first thought is: “How long before something goes wrong?”
After enough disappointments, even happiness can feel unfamiliar. We hesitate before celebrating. We soften good news with a warning. We begin preparing for the loss before we have allowed ourselves to enjoy the gift.
Kohelet offers a few words worth sitting with:
“On a day of good fortune, enjoy.”
— Kohelet 7:14
The same verse acknowledges adversity and the limits of what we can know about the future. Its invitation to enjoy goodness belongs within that uncertainty.
I find something deeply comforting in that.
We can receive a happy moment without demanding that it guarantee a happy tomorrow. A meal with someone we love. An opportunity after months of trying. A conversation that leaves us smiling long after it ends.
Let the good news finish arriving before you begin imagining its departure.
Say the blessing. Make the call. Tell someone you are happy. Give this moment your attention while it is here.
There will always be things we cannot foresee. Today’s gratitude can still be sincere, even with tomorrow unanswered.
May HaShem grant us good days—and help us recognize them while we are living them.
Shavua Tov. שבוע טוב ✡️
🤖 Made with AI
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
1. Thanks.
2. Please, please be careful.
I hope i don't sound patronizing, but growing up Jewish you do develop a kind of "dangerometer".
Please don't get hurt.
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
May her memory be a blessing! I have no doubt it will. 💙
My friend @FriendIsrael65 has passed into the arms of the Creator. Blessedly for her and her dear husband @mensch_in_black , her journey was brief, albeit unexpected and sorrowful for her family.
FriendIsrael65 was not Jewish, but married to a Jew, mother of a proudly Jewish son, a fierce defender of the Jewish people, and loving savior to animals in need.
She was a talented writer, so I urge you to read her children’s Bible stories on her page written from the perspective of pets living through these ancient events.
She also wrote a book about the life of Francis Salvador, the “Jewish Paul Revere,” as she felt it important to memorialize Jewish contributions to early American independence. It is available on Amazon as a physical or digital book.
Friend was a friend to many on X and I will treasure her concern and care for small animals, especially mine when one was sick, or lost.
May her memory be a blessing. Baruch Dayan Ha Emet. 💔🕯️
Ana חַנָּה 🤍🇮🇱 retweeted
Great questions Ana! I can see why the dry bones made you think of those killed in the Holocaust. In Ezekiel 37, God says the bones are “the whole house of Israel.” I take the vision as a picture of God restoring Israel as a people. The bodies take shape before they receive breath. That reminds me that God promises both to bring Israel back to her land and to put His Spirit within her.
I believe Ezekiel saw a real temple that will stand during Yeshua’s thousand-year reign. I understand the Third Temple to be the one that stands before His return. Then, after the thousand years, John sees the New Jerusalem, where God and the Lamb are themselves its temple (Revelation 20–21).
The sacrifices are the part I’ve had to think about most. Ezekiel describes offerings that cleanse and consecrate the altar. Hebrews 9–10 helps me see how that can fit with Yeshua’s sacrifice. The offerings served a purpose in temple worship, and they may also remind people of what Yeshua did. Yeshua’s sacrifice is what takes away sin, once for all.
What moves me most is that the same people who say, “Our hope has perished,” are the people God promises to dwell among (Ezekiel 37:11, 27). That’s what I keep coming back to when I read these chapters. God remembers His promises to Israel.
God bless you too, Ana.
Mark
