There is a saying that "everything is connected" and this often is the case in Jewish life. The three stories below, seemingly different on their surfaces, illustrate this. Each has a profound Holocaust thread running through it.

The first features reactions to a previous Update piece on Auburn University graduate Amir Eshel being named commander-in-chief of Israel's Air Force. Eshel, as the original Update story noted, is the son of Holocaust survivors and his family's Holocaust history has made a deep and lasting impression on him. The second story highlights the wonderful work being done by the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. The third is on a misguided column in today's USA Today that downplays Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

For Jews and many others, the Holocaust remains in our minds, and, as these three stories reflect, guides the thinking and actions of Jews and Israel to this day.

Update reported this week that Auburn University graduate Amir Eshel (pictured here) has been appointed as the new Commander in Chief of the Israel Air Force. Maj. Gen. Eshel, who was born in Israel in 1959, received a B.A. in economics from Auburn. Israelis have come to our state over the years to attend colleges and graduate schools, and Eshel's promotion clearly touched a chord with Update readers who have ties to Auburn.

"Please forward to the General a hearty 'War Damn Eagle!' from us here in Alabama. We are so proud of him, and wish him, his family and his country God's protection and peace," wrote Mac Chandler LTC, U.S. Army (Ret), Auburn '74. ("War Eagle" is Auburn's battle cry, especially in athletics.)

"War Eagle! Literally!" added reader Jack B. Carter II, suggesting that the Auburn cheer is a fitting one for the man who will head Israel's Air Force. "Wonderful news and thank you." Referring to Eshel, he noted that there is a line in the Auburn Creed, which also is the tagline of Auburn's school newspaper, The Plainsman, that reads: "A sprit that is not afraid."

Birmingham News journalist Roy Williams posted Update's story about Eshel on Facebook with the comment, "Good for him." The BJF also posted the story on Facebook and 10 people "liked" it within a short time after it was posted.

Though not connected to Auburn University or the state of Alabama, reader Jonathan Lichter, who lives in New York and works for our national agency, Jewish Federations of North America, also was touched by our story. The story noted that Eshel is the son of Holocaust survivors, and in 2003, while in Poland for an air show, led an Israeli fly-over of Auschwitz, an infamous Nazi death camp.

"Once again, it is Update that brings us significant news and the poignant history behind it," wrote Lichter. "Your story exceeds fiction. In the context of Iran, Gen. Eshel's roots and his quoted comment to his squadron as they flew over Auschwitz are memorable and make us stand proud. I send my fond regards and thanks to Update."

The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center (BHEC) will provide four speakers in March for the Birmingham Public Library's Brown Bag Lunch Series. Each March, for the past eight years, the BHEC has provided Holocaust programming for the library. The sessions are free of charge and open to the public. They begin at noon and last until 1 pm. This year's list of programs is outlined below.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7: Dr. Dan Puckett, Associate Professor of History at Troy University, will speak on his book, In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama's Jews and the Holocaust. He will speak about how Alabama Jews organized at both the state and local levels to work for the rescue of Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14: Dr. Abraham Schuster, who has been a practicing physician in Birmingham since 1989, will speak about his parent's experience in Poland. During their lifetime, Dr. Schuster's parents, Pauline and Judel Schuster, did not speak of their experiences in their native land. We are pleased that their children documented their gripping story, which he will share with us.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21: Speaker Riva Hirsch was seven in 1941 when the Germans occupied her village in Bessarabia. She was arrested and sent to several work camps, including Luchinetz and Tolchin, in the Ukraine. From Tolchin she was rescued by partisan troops and was cared for by nuns in a convent, hidden in bunkers from 1943-1945. She was liberated by Russian troops.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28: Dr. Natalie Davis, a professor of Political Science and Pre-Law Advisor at Birmingham-Southern College will review Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts, a highly researched, non-fiction work which covers the tenure of the US Ambassador to Germany, William E. Dodd, during the critical period 1933-1937.

The Brown Bag Lunch Series programs are held at the Birmingham Public Library in the Richard Arrington Room of the Linn-Henley building. There is parking behind the main building located at 2100 Park Place (across from the Courthouse). As you enter the main building from the back parking lot , you will see a Holocaust-themed display arranged by BHEC Board members Esther Levy and Kelly Kahn to accompany the special Brown Bag series.

Funds raised by The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign support the work of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center.

A column in today's USA Today by the paper's founder Al Neuharth on Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons woefully misses the mark. Neuharth, in a column headlined, "Why Iran's nuclear plans are no big deal," notes that 10 other countries (including Israel) already have nuclear weapons.

Neuharth writes, "It's so simple: Countries that have nuclear weapons and know when or how to use them -- or more likely not use them -- will be the survivors and leaders. Those who misuse them will die as other countries with nuclear weapons retaliate."

What he fails to overlook is the widespread death and destruction such confrontations would cause and, more specifically, he fails to take into account the ideology that is driving Iran's quest for such weapons. Iran, unlike the other nations on his list, has repeatedly stated that it desires to destroy another country -- that other country being Israel.

One might imagine Neuharth writing in the late 1930s and saying the world should not worry about Germany's quest for military might because other countries also are building up their militaries.

The Birmingham Jewish Federation, as part of our ongoing Iran Action Initiative, will send a letter to USA Today responding to Neuharth's column.

-- Richard Friedman, Executive Director