Holocaust Remembrance Day
Yom Ha’Shoah • 2008/5768
Bay Area-Wide Commmemorations
San Francisco
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Remembering Kristallnacht
Congregation Emanu-El
2 Lake Street (near Arguello), San Francisco6 pm
Short film screening
Travelogues produced in 1938:
A Day in Warsaw and Jewish Life in Lwow
(In Yiddish, with English subtitles)6:00 pm, Martin Meyer Sanctuary
followed by…
Yizkor Service & Candle Lighting Ceremony
Featuring The Jewish Folk Chorus and survivor Ralph Romberg, with memories from Kristallnacht
7:00 pm, Main Sanctuary. Doors open at 5:30 pm.
Program is free and open to the public.
Transportation for Holocaust survivors who need it can be arranged through Jewish Family and Children’s Services: (415) 449-3843For more information:
JCRC: (415) 977 7444, kcohen@jcrc.org; or
HCNC: (415) 777 9060, lkane@hcnc.org.Sponsored for the community by the Holocaust Center of Northern California and the Jewish Community Relations Council, beneficiaries of San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Unto Every Person There is a Name
Holocaust Memorial in Lincoln Park
100 34th Avenue, San Francisco
(adjacent to the Palace of Legion of Honor Museum)10 am – 2 pm
Commemoration to include:
- A reading of the names of the men, women and children who were victims of the Nazi genocide
- Recitation of Poems and Psalms
- Chanting of the mourner’s Kaddish and the El Molei Racheimim every hour of the 4 hour observance
- A Special Candle Lighting Ceremony at noon, candles lit by survivors
For more information:
Irving Golden: (415) 456-0344, maivin@comcast.netSponsored by: Greater San Francisco B’nai B’rith, annually since 1989
Partners include: The Holocaust Center of Northern California, Jewish Women Internationsl, Board of Rabbis of Northern California, Board of Canotrs, the Russian newspaper, Kstati Golden Pacific Region B’nai B’rith and the San Francisco Humanities Foundation
East Bay
Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay Yom HaShoa Ve HaG’vurah Events
Oakland
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
From Despair to Hope
Temple Sinai
2808 Summit Street (at 28th and Webster), Oakland8 pm
Keynote Speakers: Consul General David Akov and Liesel Gilbert
Admission is free.
For more information: call 510-839-2900 x253, riva@jfed.org.Liesel Gilbert is a Walnut Creek resident whose immediate family escaped life under Nazi rule by emigrating to what was then British-controlled Palestine. Unlike his five brothers, Gilbert’s father, Joseph Hirsch, decided to emigrate from Germany for the uncertainty of life in Palestine, a country he knew little about at the time.
While his brothers scoffed at the dangers of Nazi policies, Hirsch felt that Jews had no future in Germany. Gilbert credits living in a very small German town where only six Jewish families resided as the reason why her father took the Nazi Party’s anti-Semitism more seriously than his relatives. “In our small town in the Rhineland, everyone knew who the Jewish families were. You were not invisible and thus felt the brute force of our neighbors’ prejudice. We were also encouraged to leave by my former nanny who came to our house and warned my father to leave the country, saying that things were only to get worse for us.”
Ultimately, the Nazi death machine killed her five uncles and their families. Only her parents, her brother and an aunt survived World War II. Gilbert met her late husband David on a bus in Haifa and would have been married to him sixty years ago this month. David Gilbert survived the Warsaw Ghetto as well as internment at Bergen Belsen, the concentration camp where Anne Frank was also imprisoned until her death.
Lafayette
Wednesdsay, April 30, 2008
From Despair to Hope
Temple Isaiah
3800 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette7:30 pm
Keynote Speakers: Participants in the Shalhevet program
Admission is free. For more information: riva@jfed.org or 510-839-2900 x253.
The commemoration is underwritten by the Tillie and Rene Molho Fund for Holocaust Remembrance of the Jewish Community Federation and Foundation.
The keynote speakers will be three Contra Costa teenagers who will describe the emotional impact of their recent journey to Poland where they visited the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp as well as their concluding visit to Israel. They participated in a study-travel program for teens called Shalhevet (“flame” in Hebrew) whose purpose is to educate Bay Area teens about the Holocaust.
“It is time that we reflect on the Holocaust’s impact on this generation of teenagers,” emphasizes Helen Loewenstein, co-chair of the Jewish Community Federation’s Holocaust Remembrance Committee. “We must look to them not only to continue to hold the torch of memory in their hands so that they are empowered to fight against injustices wherever and to whoever they occur.”
Alameda
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Yom HaShoah Commemoration
Temple Israel
3183 Mecartney Road, Alameda7:30 pm
Berkeley
Friday, May 2, 2008
6th Annual City of Berkeley Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
12 noon
Berkeley City Council Chambers
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, BerkeleyFeaturing Professor Ann Barrows, author of Our Charlotte; poet Marcia Falk; musical selections by Rivka Amado; and honoring local Holocaust survivor Louis de Groot.
Wheelchair accessible. Admission is free.
For more information or if you have any questions please contact Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s office at (510) 981-7170 or by email at kworthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us.
South Peninsula
Santa Clara
Monday, April 14, 2008
Three Untold Stories from the Holocaust:
Women, North Africa & AsiaBoard Chambers, County Government Center
4 pm
Los Altos
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Yom Ha’Shoah V’Hagevurah
Remembrance of the Holocaust and Acts of CourageCongregation Beth Am
26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills7 pm
North Peninsula
Burlingame
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Yom Ha’Shoah V’Hagevurah
Yiddish Culture — Lost But Not Forgotten6:30 pm
North Bay
Marin
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Yom Ha’Shoah V’Hagevurah
Remembrance of the Holocaust and Acts of CourageCongregation Rodef Sholom
170 North San Pedro Road, San Rafael7 pm
Santa Rosa
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Passing the Flame of Memory to a New Generation
Congregation Beth Ami
Friedman Center
4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa2 pm – 3:30 pm
Speakers will include:
Holocaust educator Debbie Findling and Miriam Susan Dreggy, hidden child.For more info: 707-360-3000.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Shomrei Torah Holocaust Commemoration
Dr. Samuel Oliner, guest speaker
Congregation Shomrei Torah
2600 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa7 to 9 pm
Dr. Oliner was a Holocaust survivor who at age 12 lost his entire family, and later in American studied why ordinary people become extraordinary heroes.
The Shomrei Torah Holocaust commemoration will feature Jewish survivors and representative form the Holocaust including Gays & Lesbians, Handicapped, Roma, Political Prisoners and Righteous Gentiles. For the 5th year Shomrei Torah will commemorate other genocides, including native American, Armenian, Cambodian, Rwandan and Darfurian.
A holocaust survivor, Dr. Samuel Oliner at 12 lost his entire family. He is Emeritus Professor at Humboldt State, and is Founder and Director of the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute, and author of several books on genocide and human relations.
For more info: call 707-578-5519 or e-mail fran@shomreitorah.org.
