I could not let today -- April 21, 2009 -- pass without noting that it is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As someone who -- in another time and place -- would have carted away, whether or not I was religious or not, this day always had personal meaning.

But it seems to have more impact this year and I need not pay a therapist to unearth the reason.

It is because of Sofia and how much my wife and I love her with every ounce of our beings.

I can't even wrap my arms around the concept of the helplessness of trying to protect a child who someone else deems unworthy to exist.

I think of a lot of people on this day, but I'm mostly thinking of the parents -- parents who watched their children die in front of their eyess, parents who tried to survive for the sake of their children and died in fear of what would become of them, parents who sent their children to live in hiding with others without knowing what the ominous future would bring.

The goodbyes had to be the most painful in history of humankind.

And it's something to which every parent could relate, regardless of who and what you are.

If you are reading this right now, please take a moment to remember. Take a moment to hold your children -- and your parents -- a little closer.

Shalom.