Residents of the New Castle community will gather in person at the New Castle Holocaust Memorial located on South Greeley Avenue on Tuesday, April 26th, 2022, at 6:30 PM, to commemorate Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Yom Hashoah Commemoration
A Countywide Yom Hashoah Commemoration to be Held Thursday, April 28 at the Anne Frank Garden of Remembrance
The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) and Westchester Jewish Council (WJC) will host the annual Countywide Yom Hashoah Commemoration Keeping the Memory Alive on April 28th from 12 to 1 p.m. at the Anne Frank Garden of Remembrance on 148 Martine Avenue in White Plains, NY. The event will feature a keynote speech delivered by Alan Moskin, a U.S. Army Liberator and member of the HHREC Speakers Bureau, and there will be a procession of Westchester’s rescued Holocaust Torahs.
“This is the 30th anniversary of the Garden of Remembrance, and the memorial site enables us to come together to commemorate Yom Hashoah (Day of Remembrance) at this special place” said Millie Jasper, Executive Director of HHREC. “We are very proud to host this event with our friends from Westchester Jewish Council and look forward to being together again in person with the Westchester County community.”
This event will be held rain or shine, and admission is free and open to all. For more information, please contact Millie Jasper mjasper@hhrency.org or Pam Goldstein pam@wjcouncil.org
About The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center
The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center is a not-for-profit organization based in White Plains New York that serves Westchester, Fairfield and neighboring counties. Their Mission is to enhance the teaching and learning of the lessons of the Holocaust and the right of all people to be treated with dignity and respect. We encourage students to speak up and act against all forms of bigotry and prejudice. Their work with students and teachers helps schools fulfill the New York State mandate that the Holocaust and other human rights abuses be included in their curriculum. Since 1994, they have brought the lessons of the Holocaust, genocide and human rights crimes to more than 1750 teachers, and through them to thousands of middle and high school students. Through their volunteer Educators Program Committee, the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center gives teachers the unique opportunity to develop programs for themselves and others. These programs not only enrich teachers’ knowledge about the Holocaust and related issues, but they also provide the lens through which to view all other human rights violations. For more information call 914.696.0738 email info@hhrecny.org
Yom Hashoah Ceremony: Calls for Vigilance and Upstanders
Story and Photos By Grace Bennett
April 12, White Plains, NY–A procession of 30 ‘Holocaust Rescued Torahs’ took place at the Yom Hashoah Ceremony in the Anne Frank Garden of Remembrance– each symbolic of the devastation that fell Jewish communities throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, each also a reminder of Jewish resilience and survival against all odds.
Representatives from Temples, Synagogues and Jewish Centers from throughout Westchester County carefully cradled and carried the preserved Torahs to the foot of the open gates. From New Castle’s Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester, a Torah, held by Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe, came from Boskovice, at the time a part of Germany, now in the Czec Republic. From Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk was a Torah scroll saved by congregants of a Synagogue in Pacov (50 miles SE of Prague).
Songs by the Westchester Day School choir followed as did the blowing of the Shofar and an invocation by Rabbi Daniel Gropper of the Westchester Board of Rabbis; Gropper notably called out current day bigotry. He also quoted the Garden of Remembrance’s inscription: “In memory of those who died. In thanksgiving for those who survived. In gratitude for those who risked their lives in rescue.”
Remarks by Joseph Kaidanow, Chairman of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, and from Lisa Roberts. President of the Westchester Jewish Council, preceded those of County Executive George Latimer.
Kaidanow, recalled the legacy of the much beloved Eugene Grant, a survivor and long-time, generous benefactor of the HHREC who recently passed. Eugene often warned, he said, of what can happen “when people fail to be upstanders.”
Latimer reminded attendees of the “common humanity and vigilance” we must share after “six million Jews were mercilessly killed.”
The final remarks before a candle lighting were from survivor Agnes Vertes who relayed the harrowing details of her experiences being separated from her parents, describing too how vital it was to her that she was still together with her little sister.
Both were hidden as very young children from the Nazis in Hungary. One tale in particular resonated when Vertes told of how her two-year-old sister tugged playfully on the trouser of a Hungarian Nazi officer who had come to find Jews in the orphanage she and her sister were living in as ‘Catholics.’ (Agnes was warned never to mention they were Jewish–she came to understand why after witnessing Jewish people being beaten.)
The SS officer was charmed by her sister, tossed her in the air, and said that only an Aryan child could be so cute. He abandoned his mission.
“She was 100 percent Jewish!” Gertes said, proudly, eliciting some laughter too. Her little sister, she said, “may have saved 100 lives that day.”
Gertes described how she struggled with survivor’s guilt after learning so many children were killed, but gradually felt she “was lucky to have survived” so that she could tell the story so that such events would never be repeated again.
Procession of 28 Rescued Holocaust Torahs at April 12 Yom Hashoah Commemoration
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