Why “kedoshim” is a great word
KEDOSHIM — [Noun] A term for Jewish martyrs, particularly those murdered in the Holocaust, derived from the Hebrew word for 'holy ones'. From the Hebrew קדושים (kedoshim, "holy ones; saints and martyrs"), plural of קָדוֹשׁ (kadosh, "holy"), from the root ק־ד־שׁ (k-d-sh, "to be holy, consecrated"). Unlike "martyr," a general, cross-cultural term for one who dies for a cause, or "victim," a neutral, secular term for one who is harmed, *kedoshim* specifically consecrates Jewish suffering within a framework of covenantal sanctity. It is the word etched on a Yad Vashem plaque, whispered in a Yizkor prayer, and carried in the silence of a generation that was not allowed to choose its sanctity—a liturgical title that transforms a people's most profound loss into a form of holiness, because to remember them only as victims would be another desecration.