Community invited to International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Harrisburg

Seth Kaplan
·2 min read
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A memorial ceremony happening tonight is going to be different from last year’s event.

The annual “International Holocaust Remembrance Day” event in Harrisburg is scheduled for January 23 at 6 p.m.

This year, leaders are encouraging everyone — not just Jewish people — to attend.

Nazis murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust, but they also murdered five million other people including Black people, gay people and other minorities.

“This is an open event for everybody, not just Jewish people…. It’s more important for people to hear what we feel,” Lieutenant Colonel Moran Goldstein of the Israel Defense Forces said. “From generation to generation, we take the oath to remember, not to forget. So this event is extremely important.”

Tova Friedman, a Polish-American social worker, author and Holocaust survivor, will speak, and organizers say some very current events will also influence this year’s program.

“Aside from the six million people, the six candles, the seventh candle demonstrated will actually be for October 7th, the hard Saturday, the ‘black Saturday,’ as we call it,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein is currently based in New Cumberland, on assignment from Israel, serving the country in a joint program with the Carlisle’s Army War College. German and Polish officers are also a part, and they are scheduled to speak at the program about their countries’ roles in the genocide during World War II.

245,000 Jewish survivors are still alive after Holocaust: report

According to a global report released today by the Claims Conference the United States is home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. 90% of those survivors live in ten states, on of which is Pennsylvania (4%).

The other states with high percentages of survivors include New York (40%), California (15%), Florida (8%), Illinois (6%), New Jersey (6%), Massachusetts (5%), Maryland (3%), Ohio (2%) and Michigan (1%).

To register to attend the event, visit the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg’s website.

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