- April 19, 2024
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The room was completely silent. The strike of a match and the sniffle of a tear were the only sounds.
Roy Schaffer stood above the seventh candle, the one in honor of the righteous gentiles, and said, “May we never forget.” The lighting of the candle was the final memorial candle, lit following six others in memory of the 6 million Jewish men, women and children who were tortured and murdered during the Holocaust.
Synagogues worldwide commemorated Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Sunday, April 7. It was observed locally at Temple Beth Shalom.
“There is no adequate reaction to the Holocaust, but we must not ignore it, and we must not forget its victims,” teenager Frankie Short said during the ceremony.
The ceremony included readings by religious students, as well as memorial prayers. Holocaust survivors Claire Soria, Henry Orlowski and Elanore Rubin lit memorial candles. As did Sylvia Fogel, whose husband, Arthur, was a survivor.
“We gather to make sure that this generation and generations that follow will know the horror that Jews suffered — we gather here to make sure that the death of human beings, whether Jews or not, will not be forgotten,” said Robert Arkin, men’s club president. “We are here to tell the bigots, the Jew haters and the deniers of the Holocaust that we will fight them at every single moment. Those Jews that died will not be forgotten.”
