Westchester to honor millions killed in Holocaust with Torah procession, candle-lighting

Steve Lieberman, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Updated ·2 min read
24

WHITE PLAINS - A Westchester-wide commemoration honoring the estimated six million Jews and millions of other people murdered during the Nazi Germany Holocaust is planned for April 18.

The annual Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in the Garden of Remembrance at 148 Martine Ave., White Plains.

Holocaust Survivor Hannah Holsten is scheduled to give the keynote address. There also will be a procession of people carrying rescued Holocaust Torahs.

Rabbi Laurie Gold of Temple Beth Elohim in Brewster and Serafima Dashevskaya of Congregation Shir Shalom of Ridgefield, Conn. hold rescued Holocaust Torahs during the annual Westchester County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration May 2, 2019 at the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains.
Rabbi Laurie Gold of Temple Beth Elohim in Brewster and Serafima Dashevskaya of Congregation Shir Shalom of Ridgefield, Conn. hold rescued Holocaust Torahs during the annual Westchester County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration May 2, 2019 at the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains.

Rockland: Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemoration set

Rescued Torahs: 25 rescued Torahs featured at Westchester's Holocaust commemoration

Edie Falco: Actress returns to Penguin Rep as a mom with issues, at war and at home

The Tuesday afternoon commemoration, Keeping the Memory Alive, is sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center and the Westchester Jewish Council.

Rockland's annual Yom HaShoah event is planned for 2 p.m. April 17 at the Rockland County Courthouse in the building's jurors' room. The theme is "Defenders of Democracy," with the guest speaker being Anne Minihan, the administrative judge for the 9th Judicial District.

Rockland and Westchester counties boast large Jewish populations and are home to Holocaust survivors and families of those killed or liberated from the Nazi death camps at the end of World War II.

Student award winners from the Somers Holocaust Memorial Commission light candles during the annual Westchester County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration May 2, 2019 at the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains.
Student award winners from the Somers Holocaust Memorial Commission light candles during the annual Westchester County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration May 2, 2019 at the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains.

The solemn events, featuring candle lightings for those who died, come during the international Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations, known in Hebrew as Yom HaShoah. The observances remember the approximately six million Jews and five million other people murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators across Europe during World War II.

The Nazis were radically right-wing, fascist antisemitic, anticommunist and anti-democratic.

Nazi Germany under Chancellor Adolf Hitler adopted the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 and continued with Jews and others being forcibly taken to ghettos and then labor and extermination camps in Germany, Poland, and nations occupied by Germany.

Hitler gained power legally in 1933 and then sought world domination by invading other countries, causing World War II by invading Poland in 1939 in a short-lived pact with Joseph Stalin's communist Soviet Union.

For more information on the Westchester Yom Hashoah commemoration, email mjasper@hhrecny.com or pam@wjcouncil.org.

Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.

Read more articles and bio. Our local coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester NY marks Holocaust with event April 18