Gratitude for the Greatest Sacrifice

America begins its unofficial start to the summer with the arrival of Memorial Day weekend. People will be flocking to the beach, firing up the grill for barbeques, and shopping for mattress sales. It's important to pause and reflect on what this day is actually about. Memorial Day is not just a day off of work or school. It is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the military personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the performance of their military duties while serving in the United States Armed Forces.  As Jews living in the United States, I believe it is imperative for us to be grateful for the ultimate sacrifice that thousands of members of the U.S. Armed made during the Second World War. It will be 77 years this week, since June 6, 1944, when the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight the Nazis. There is an argument to be made that these heroic individuals made the greatest sacrifice in the history of the world. On those few days, nearly 10,000 soldiers were killed. The Allied casualties were comprised of American, British, and Canadian soldiers. Those brave men knew they were going to near-certain death but did so because that was the only way to stop the Nazi conquest from spreading. Although there were high casualties initially, eventually, the Allies broke the Nazi stronghold, and the tide of the war shifted toward the eventual defeat of the Nazis. It's hard to imagine now, but had the Allied Forces not intervened and defeated the Nazis, it would have most likely meant defeat of the Jewish People as we know it. Hitler made no secret about it. He had wanted the world to be Judenrein. The only thing standing in the way of his global ambitions from being carried out were the Allied Forces fighting back with of course, the help of G-d. The fact that the Jewish people survived not only to live another day, but to rebuild a modern Jewish State in their ancient homeland and find a benevolent refuge in America, could only have happened because of those Allied soldiers' great sacrifice. Today in Colleville-Sur-Mer, France, there are 9,387 heroes laid to rest in the Normandy American Cemetery. Among them, 149 Jewish headstones are marked with a Star of David. Regardless of which religious symbol occupies the soil, the righteousness of the soldiers that lie on that sacred ground will never be forgotten for the rest of history.  On several of my trips to Washington, I have found myself pulled to the World War Two Memorial in our nation's capital. There is a large inscription with the following words from President Harry S Truman: OUR DEBT TO THE HEROIC MEN AND VALIANT WOMEN IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE REPAID. THEY HAVE EARNED OUR UNDYING GRATITUDE. AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES. In an age when sacrifice and commitment have evolved into newer understandings, let us pause and reflect with tremendous Hakaras Hatov toward those without whom we would not have lived to see a better day.  May their memory be a blessing. יהי זכרם ברוך Have a Peaceful Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Fisch