Remembering victims of the Holocaust by speaking their names
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, will be observed on 鶹ѰBoulder campus Tuesday with a public reading of the names of Jews killed in the Holocaust
The 鶹Ѱ community will observe Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on campus Tuesday with a.
Chancellor Justin Schwartz will begin the reading of named at 10 a.m. at theDalton Trumbo Fountain Courtin front of the University Memorial Center, and the reading of names will continue until 3 p.m.
Event organizers encourage members of the campus and broader communities to participate in the readings. Prospective participants may
The U.S. Congress established the Days of Remembrance in 1980 as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1993, leads the nation in observing Days of Remembrance and encourages observances throughout the United States.
What: Public readings on Yom HaShoah
When: Tuesday, April 14, from10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Dalton Trumbo Fountain Courtin front of the University Memorial Center.
The main event takes place at the U.S. Capitol, often attended by the U.S. President. In Israel, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration on which the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized.
It begins at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish calendar, and ends the following evening, according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day. Established in 1953by a law from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, it falls close the anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are held at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to victims of the Holocaust.
During Yom HaShoah ceremonies in the United States, Israel and elsewhere, people read the names of Jews murdered by the Germans and their allies during the Shoah.
“The events of the Holocaustare given meaning only by remembering the individuals who died during that time,” Rabbi Sharon Sobel writes. “We gather as a community, we remember the names of those who died, and we affirm their lives by how we choose to lead our lives. So, names, indeed, are very powerful. ... We honor those who came before us and those who perished during the Holocaust by giving our names—and their names meaning through ouractions and aspirations and the way we fulfill them.”
The 鶹ѰBoulder event is presented by the Program in Jewish Studies, the Department of History and Center for Humanities and the Arts.
Though the reading of names occurs each year, “they have not lost any of their meaning and significance,” says Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, the Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History. “On the contrary.”
For more information on the Days of Remembrance and Yom HaShoah commemoration,please contact Pegelow Kaplan atthomas.pegelow-kaplan@colorado.edu.
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