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Yom HaShoah: Remembering the Holocaust. In the entrance,
Jewish and Muslim leaders are joined by Christian clergy from many
different denominations.

In his welcome, Father Ryan said, "we do our remembering tonight not for
the sake of reopening painful wounds or of stirring up sentiments of
hatred and revenge. No, we remember in order to honor those who died,
to acknowledge historical reality, and above all to make sure that never
again, in any part of the world, will others experience the horrors
experienced by those millions of men and women who were systematically
exterminated during the Holocaust."

The service begins with the reading of Psalm 23. A youth reader
from Temple de Hirsch Sinai reads the psalm in Hebrew....

...as a youth reader from St. James Cathedral reads each verse in
English. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no
evil, for you are with me."

Alex Nguyen of St. James reads the testimony of a young soldier who was
one of the first to enter Dachau when the camps were liberated in 1945.
"It is difficult to know how to begin," Harold Porter wrote home to his
parents on May 7, 1945. "I know you will hesitate to believe me no
matter how objective and factual I try to be. I even find myself trying
to deny what I am looking at with my own eyes…. It is easy to read
about atrocities, but they must be seen before they can be believed."

Survivors of the Holocaust light the six candles of remembrance,
representing the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

"In memory of helpless infants, children, and teenagers who were cut
down like young trees before their time during the Holocaust, before
they had a chance to experience life. We shall not forget!"

A young reader from Temple de Hirsch Sinai reads the famous poem "I
Never Saw Another Butterfly," which was written by a child in the ghetto
of Terezin, Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. An estimated 15,000
children passed through the ghetto, of whom fewer than 100 survived.
"For seven weeks I’ve lived in here, / Penned up inside this ghetto,"
wrote Pavel Friedman in 1942. "But I have found what I love here. / The
dandelions call to me / And the white chestnut branches in the court. /
Only I never saw another butterfly."

Steve Adler of Temple Beth Am, a survivor of the Holocaust, sang the
traditional prayer Oseh shalom bimramov.

Imam Abdullah Polovina of Bosnia offered a prayer for all victims of
genocide.

Jon Lellelid of Temple de Hirsch Sinai sounds the shofar.

Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple de Hirsch Sinai prays the mourner's
prayer, the Kaddish.

All present exchange a sign of peace - shalom.

Scott Abraham of Temple Beth Am sings Shalom rev.

At the conclusion of the service, the survivors spread light to all in
the assembly.
Learn more about the Shoah. Visit the website
of the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC,
http://www.ushmm.org/.
Visit the website of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem,
here
http://www.yadvashem.org.il/.
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