יום השואה והגבורה YOM HASHOAH - HOLOCAUST DAY -  Dear friends,  The emphatic motto of Yom HaShoah, the Day of Remembrance of the over 6 million of our brothers and sisters - children, adults and elderly Jews - murdered in the Holocaust, is "NEVER AGAIN". For 70 years since the end of World War II in Europe on May 7, 1945 with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, we have repeated this message of life against the most terrible of the worst of all future scenarios: the threat of a second Holocaust against the Jews living in the State of Israel in the days before the 6-Day War, which ended in a huge victory for Israel[1]. Since 1967, the State of Israel and the Jewish People have proclaimed "Never Again" as a way to remember the past rather than as a reference to an uncertain Jewish Future in Israel and the Diaspora. Although many enemies of the Children of Israel loudly declared their desire for total annihilation of the Jews, the actual danger of genocide against our people in Israel receded; every time Israel's existence was endangered, Israel eliminated or neutralized the threat[2]. Yom HaShoah, then, concentrated on the irreparable, immeasurable and brutal loss of the vast majority of European Jewish and many North African communities, focusing on the deepest pain of our ancient people in all the tribulations of our national history of persecutions, expulsions and mass murder.  For all that, it seems that much of the world has not learned the lessons of the most revolting crime in human history: today, a dark and threatening cloud hangs over the State of Israel. The Empire of the Ayatollahs, the Iranian Republic of Islamist Terror ceaselessly proclaims its threat to the Jews of atomic murder.  Iran today faces a most profound demographic crisis: its birthrate of only 1.86 children per woman (2013)[3]. It is a nation already suffering from a radical weakness, a rapidly aging population, and therefore a genuine decline of its civilization of oppression. In his book "How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)", David Goldman, an economist by training, explains the impact demographic fluctuations have on the greater strategic balance of power between states and civilizations. Goldman explains Iran is undergoing economic and demographic decline; in order to carry out the regime's regional and global expansionist ambitions, it needs more resources, which could be easier to obtain under the umbrella of nuclear weapons. Goldman compares Iran's predicament to that of the former Soviet Union. From the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the country's leadership began to act more aggressively - perhaps because they understood that it was their last chance to push for power amid economic and demographic decline. In Iran, mosque attendance is low, just as church attendance is in England, he states. "The best predictor of the number of children in industrial societies is religious observance."  This very substantially explains Iran's ambitions to achieve regional military hegemony while it faces demographic decline. Iran urgently needs the atomic bomb. With it, Iran can keep alive the threat of terrorism perpetrated by its allied groups in countries like Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and its alliance with other Shi'ite or pro-Iran terrorist networks like Hamas in Gaza.  The problem is that the Iranian regime does not work declaratively. Its terror is real, concrete, murderer, bestial. When the masses fueled by the Ayatollahs shout "Death to Israel"... they really mean it. When on Iranian state TV some days ago General Mohammad Reza Naqdi called for the destruction of Israel[4], he expressed not only his deepest hatred but practical plans to carry out the destruction of the "Zionist entity", in other words, another, and this time final Holocaust. That is why in an era of Sunni-Shiite war, Shiite Iran finances Sunni Hamas to rebuild its military arsenal and tunnels in Gaza to sow terror and murder against our small Jewish State[5]. Nothing is more important than destroying Israel, nothing, not even the epochal violent confrontation between the two major groups in Islam.  With regret, we remember the policies in the late 1970's when President Jimmy Carter that "abandoned U.S. responsibility" which caused the fall of Iran into the hands of the Ayatollahs. At present, in its attempt to leave "a historical legacy" of peace to the world, the current U.S. Administration - with only two years left in office - gives Iran the opportunity to achieve what it wants: regional hegemony; weakening the large Sunni majority in Islam, which is numerically much larger than the Shiite minority; strengthening Iran-supported Islamist terror groups in over a dozen countries; leaving Israel exposed to actual nuclear attack - in the current agreement no limitations are placed on development of Iran's growing ballistic missile program; many of their missiles can fly thousands of miles from Iran.  Yom HaShoah impels us to demand "Never Again" from the same Humankind who sent the Jewish people to the Nazi death camps only 70 years ago. That is why in this Yom HaShoah we must, more than ever, join the many campaigns that demand an Iran without nuclear capabilities - at least while the Ayatollahs' realm of extremism and murderous madness of terrorism continue to dominate the country that 36 years ago enjoyed warm relations with the State of Israel; Iran was home to one of the world's great civilizations in ancient times is now reduced to a State of Terror, both within its boundaries and abroad. May God grant that we shall be worthy continuers of the message of life and actionbequeathed to us by the murdered victims and the survivors, multiplying Jewish life everywhere through our decisive action in all the Jewish communities in the world, and in our magnificent center, the State of Israel.  During this Yom HaShoah, may God grant that we shall remember the extraordinary content, flowering creativity and productivity of the individual lives and Jewish communities so brutally uprooted.  May God always protect the State of Israel!  And may we always remember, bless, honor and perpetuate by our deeds the lives of the Six Million, for we are their Living Memorial.  Chazak ve'ematz!  Rabbi Carlos A. Tapiero Deputy Director-General & Director of Education Maccabi World Union  ------ [1] The 6-Day War started on June 5, 1967. It was a all-fronts victory that gave Israel control of the Golan Heights, all of Sinai, Judea and Samaria (also called West Bank). [2] As Israel destroyed the nuclear reactors of Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. [3] http://www.meforum.org/3724/iran-demographic-problem http://www.meforum.org/5000/strategic-implications-iran-std [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caJ8aHope0Q [5] http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Iran-transfers-millions-to-Hamas-for-reconstruction-of-tunnels-missiles-396200