Yom HaShoah memorializes the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
Sun., April 22, 4 pm at Congregation Temple Israel (Spoede & Ladue Roads)
Hundreds of St. Louisans will mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Sunday, April 22, 2012, at Congregation Temple Israel, in the largest annual communitywide commemoration. The event is supported by Leo and Sara Wolf through the Wolf/Najman Memorial. Yom HaShoah memorializes the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. The event is sponsored by the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.
This year’s theme is “Survivors Among Us: Stories From the Shoah” — “We are witnesses…” Book of Joshua, 20:24. Vera Emmons is Chair of the Yom HaShoah Committee.
The program will focus on testimonies of four St. Louis Survivors who convey the profound tragedy of the Holocaust. Speakers include: Judith Hruza and Bobbie Kohn, Survivors from Hungary; Ann Lenga, Survivor from Poland, and Mendel Rosenberg, Survivor from Lithuania. Some of the speakers have never spoken publicly or at a Yom HaShoah event before.
“Yom HaShoah is the largest program the Holocaust Museum presents – open to the entire community,” explained Daniel Reich, HMLC curator and director of education. “While in some past years we have marked specific anniversaries or milestones in Holocaust history, this year we feel strongly that it is important to focus on the voices of Survivors, sharing their diverse, unique experiences. They alone serve as eyewitnesses to this tragic period of history,” he added.
The commemoration will include liturgical readings, memorial prayers and music performed by Tova, Gabriel and Mischa Braitberg (Elegant Ensembles) — child and grandchildren of Survivors, and Kolot, a communitywide Jewish women’s Choir. A procession of Torah scrolls rescued from the Shoah will also take place.
The program will also be presented in sign language.
For more information, contact the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center at 314-442-3714 or email dreich@jfedstl.org.
The Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, a department of Jewish Federation of St. Louis, opened in 1995. Each year, more than 30,000 people visit the Museum. All exhibits are free and open to the public.