From the Desk of Sharon Glassberg, Board President
Kristallnacht, often referred to as “The Night of Broken Glass,” was a state-sponsored pogrom carried out across Nazi Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland on November 9-10, 1938. This pogrom resulted in the widespread destruction of Jewish property, institutions, homes, synagogues, Torah scrolls, and communities, including the death of 91 Jews as a direct result of the violence.
Authorities arrested approximately 30,000 Jewish men and imprisoned them in concentration camps such as Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen. The Nazi regime blamed the Jewish community for the destruction, forced them to pay a collective fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks, and confiscated all insurance payouts for the damaged property. Wolfgang Helpap, of blessed memory, a Holocaust Survivor who later made Tucson his home, lived in Berlin and survived Kristallnacht. His father’s store was destroyed, including the physical space and all inventory. Adding to the devastation, Wolfgang’s father was forced to pay for all repairs on his store and then relinquish ownership.
The November Pogrom was an attempt to both extinguish the Jewish spirit and the Jewish people. Today, we still face escalating antisemitism; however, our light, our spirit, cannot and will not be extinguished. Nazi Germany did not obliterate Judaism; as a matter of fact, through unimaginable torture, devastation, starvation, and death, the Jewish people still live. Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, invites us to join the “Spread the Light” initiative by leaving the lights on overnight on November 9, 2026, to symbolize the triumph of the Jewish spirit.
TJMHC will join organizations around the world in answering one of history’s darkest nights with light.
Keep the Lights on. Take a photo. Share on social media. Tag Yad Vashem with #SpreadtheLight.