The 2010 Twin Cities Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemoration will be held 7 p.m. Sunday, April 11 at Mount Zion Temple, 1300 Summit Ave., St. Paul. The commemoration will reflect the theme “A Transfer of Memory,” which will illustrate the importance of Holocaust survivors sharing their stories with future generations.
This year’s commemoration will feature the Adopt-A-Survivor program of the Talmud Torah of Minneapolis, which pairs students with Holocaust survivors. Program participants will perform an original spoken word cantata together.
Local Holocaust survivors gather at Beth El Synagogue in 2009 to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Photo: Mordecai Specktor)
The commemoration will also feature a performance by Steven Copes, concertmaster of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Three families will be recognized during the evening as “Righteous Among the Nations” for saving Jewish people during the Holocaust.
This year, the JCRC has been collecting handmade butterflies from local students to display at the Yom HaShoah commemoration in connection with the Butterfly Project, an initiative of the Holocaust Museum Houston. The museum is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies to remember the 1.5 million innocent children who perished in the Holocaust.
The Mount Zion Teen Choir, Shir Chants, will perform The Last Butterfly during the commemoration.
As is tradition at Yom HaShoah, Holocaust survivors are invited to light candles in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Members of the Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota (CHAIM) will assist in the lighting.
The commemoration is free and open to the public. For information, contact Susie Greenberg at 612-338-7816 or: susie@toleranceminnesota.org.
