Wyomissing, PA— Please join us on Thursday, May 2 at 7 p.m. for an evening to commemorate, remember and honor the six million Jews and five million others who were murdered during the Holocaust. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at The Highlands, 2000 Cambridge Avenue Wyomissing, PA and is sponsored by the Lakin Holocaust Library & Resource Center and Jewish Federation of Reading/Berks.
This year’s Yom Hashoah commemoration will include an “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony. Now in its 30th year, these ceremonies are a unique project designed to perpetuate the memory of the Six Million murdered during the Shoah. This worldwide Holocaust memorial project offers the opportunity to memorialize them not only as a collective but also as individuals – one at a time – through the public recitation of their names on Yom Hashoah. Local Jewish youth will be reading a list of over seven dozen names, which have been collected from local residents of family members who perished during the Holocaust.
The program will also feature a presentation by local educator Sean D. Gaston, who will discuss Holocaust education, Holocaust remembrance and his recent trip to Holocaust sites in Europe. Sean D. Gaston is a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow; a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Alfred J. Lerner Fellow. He directed and produced the two-time Emmy nominated and award-winning Holocaust documentary film Misa’s Fugue. Last summer Gaston completed the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers’ Program in Newark, Germany, and Poland where he traveled and studied with scholars at 17 different Holocaust related sites. Gaston currently teaches two courses on the Holocaust, “Introduction to the Holocaust Through Film and Literature” and “The Holocaust in American Popular Culture” at Fleetwood Area High School.
The remembrance will include a memorial candle lighting service led by Holocaust survivors and family members of survivors. Such unique opportunities with Holocaust survivors will soon be a thing of the past, as many survivors are dying each year. Join us as we celebrate Jewish life and remember the millions of Jews and non-Jews who perished during the holocaust.
The Lakin Holocaust Library & Resource Center (HRC), a joint effort between Albright College and Jewish Federation of Reading. The Lakin HRC contains more than 2,800 volumes of text and audio-visual materials that support its’ mission to educate the community about the Holocaust and other genocides.
The Jewish Federation of Reading is the planning, coordinating and fundraising arm of the Jewish community. The Federation raises and allocates funds for The Jewish Federations of North America’s collective efforts in support of many vital national and international Jewish organizations.
