Vigils
HOLOCAUST
For 2024, our VIGIL will take place on
Sunday, May 5th.
There is none among us, no family and no individual who has been untouched by The Holocaust. For some of us, there are the stories of relatives in Europe and their descent into the abyss. For others, there are the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and others, some of whom perished amidst the gas and flames, and others who survived to bear witness, some of them among us still.
For all of us, there is the duty, the commitment, the promise ... especially now ... to those who are gone and to those who remain, to ourselves, to our children and to the world ... to Remember!
This year, help to keep the promise by participating in our annual Temple Beth David Yom HaShoah Vigil of Remembrance.
On Sunday, April 24, from 9:45 am to 9:45 pm in the Shipper Family Sanctuary we read aloud the names of martyrs of the Shoah. Friends from throughout our community attended with us to read the names of the Righteous Among The Nations.
And as the names of those whose lives and gifts were torn from us echo in our sanctuary, join us ... to Remember!
The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is "Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah"-- the "Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism." It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan--a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers).
When the 27th of Nisan falls on a Friday or Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed the previous Thursday or the following Sunday, respectively, to avoid adjacency with Shabbat. (The Hebrew calendar is fixed so that the 27th never falls on Shabbat itself.)
The date was selected by the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on April 12, 1951. The full name became formal in a law that was enacted by the Knesset on August 19, 1953. Although the date was established by the Israeli government, it has become a day commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide.
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