On November 9, hundreds of synagogues and churches around the world will keep the lights on all night to honor the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the day in 1938 when dozens of Jews in Nazi Germany were murdered and their businesses destroyed in what came to be called the “Night of Broken Glass.”

Fifteen years ago, Israel’s Religious Kibbutz Movement started what it called “Light from the Synagogue” and asked Israeli synagogues to keep their lights on to commemorate the anniversary.

The other part of the initiative is for synagogues to teach congregants about Kristallnacht.

Prescott’s Temple B’rith Shalom is doing both.

Rabbi Susan Schanermam writes a column in the temple’s weekly newsletter. This week’s “Rabbi’s Reflections” will “inform the congregation of this worldwide effort and our small part in it,” she said.

“Kristallnacht was a point of no return,” said Dalia Yohanan, the initiative’s coordinator. “The world did not care and that was a signal to the Nazis,” she told The Times of Israel.

“The devastation of this event is significant, and what it symbolized for German Jewry proved to be deep and long-lasting,” according to Yad Vashem. “The passivity of German citizens signaled to Nazi authorities that the German public was prepared for more violence and would likely continue to be silent.”

This is the first year churches are also being asked to participate.

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