Holocaust victims to be memorialized on campus
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, to be observed by a public reading of the names of Jews killed in the Holocaust
Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day,听will be observed on campus again this year with a .
Weather permitting, the reading will take place on听Thursday, April 24, from听10 a.m. until 5 p.m.听at the听Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court听in front of the University Memorial Center.
The event鈥檚 organizers encourage 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鈥檚 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.
听听What: Public readings on Yom HaShoah
听听When: Thursday, April 24, from听10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
听听Where: Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court听in 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鈥 and Heroes鈥 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 1953听by a law from the Knesset, Israel鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.
鈥淭he events of the Holocaust听are given meaning only by remembering the individuals who died during that time,鈥 Rabbi Sharon Sobel writes. 鈥淲e 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鈥攁nd their names meaning through our听actions and aspirations and the way we fulfill them.鈥
The CU 麻豆影院 event is presented by the Program in Jewish Studies. It is co-sponsored by the CU 麻豆影院 Department of History, Department of Women and Gender Studies and Center for Humanities and the Arts.
For more information on the Days of Remembrance and Yom HaShoah commemoration,听please contact Professor Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, the Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History, at听thomas.pegelow-kaplan@colorado.edu.
鈥淚n our rapidly changing domestic and global political situation and the various devastating ongoing wars, especially in Israel and Gaza, these commemorations have again taken on yet a different meaning,鈥 Pegelow Kaplan said.
鈥淭his event will also once more amount to a small contribution towards addressing charges of antisemitism (鈥榮tructural鈥 or not) that are still leveled against CU not only by right-wing non-Jewish and Jewish groups, but even by officials in or close to the federal government.鈥
Pegelow Kaplan noted that April 24 is also the anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide, 鈥渁nd we will most certainly mention it and other mass crimes and mass death, especially in Gaza/Israel.鈥
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