Never forget
From 7 a.m. this morning until 7 p.m. tonight, names of Holocaust victims are being read at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus by volunteers from throughout the community.
It’s chilling to know that each of these names belonged to a person, each with their own families, hopes and dreams. No matter how many films or documentaries one watches, it’s difficult to fathom the horrors that these individuals experienced. Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Holocaust Remembrance Week gives us the opportunity to come together as a community and renew our vows never to forget: to hear survivors’ stories and take a moment to remember those whose lives were lost.
This morning, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane attended the Yom Hashoah commemoration at the campus. “If we choose, we can learn from history,” he told those gathered at the campus entrance.
Rabbi Erica Burech from Pardes Jewish Day School spoke, as well as students from Jess Schwartz Academy, who read “Never Shall I Forget” by Elie Wiesel; “At My Bar Mitzvah and His,” a responsive reading by Rabbi Howard Kahn; and “The Holocaust ‘Haggadah’ ” by Rachel Mandula.
The commemoration ended with the singing of “Hatikvah” led by Sharron Topper-Amitai, the community shlicha of The Israel Center and inside, the names of the victims continued to be read. Afterward, in the social hall, survivor Bronia Bronkesh and her daughter, Sheryl, presented “Three Generations: A Journey of Mother, Daughter & Granddaughter: A trip back to Poland and Ukraine.”
Stop by the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus this week to join in the community commemoration.
Today, the names will be read until 7 p.m., when a community reciting of Yizkor will take place. An exhibit of Holocaust paintings by Helen Weisman, a certified docent at the Holocaust Museum and Educational Center in Illinois, will be on display throughout the week. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Weisman spent five years creating the images of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, dedicated to the memory of her parents.
According to a sign on display with the exhibit (see photo below), the reason she painted the collection in tones of black and white is because “this was such a dark time in the history of the Jewish people. The color “red” is used to occasionally represent the Jewish blood that was spilled, because of prejudice, ignorance and hatred.”
On Thursday, at 6:30 p.m., Mark Roseman, the Pat M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies at Indiana University, will speak about “Surviving Survival: A Life-story.”
The campus is located at 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Visit vosjcc.org.
Below: Part of the exhibit by Helen Weisman, on display at the campus until the end of the week. Photo by Leisah Woldoff
03 May, 2011 >
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