Yom Yashoah To Be Commemorated  In Cumberland County

Ceremony at Alliance Cemetery’s Wall of Remembrance on May 1
Zachor Service of Remembrance at Beth Israel Congregation on May 5 

Community programs commemorating Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) will take place on Wednesday evening, May 1 and Sunday evening, May 5, sponsored by Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties. Both commemorations are free and open to the public.

A ceremony of memorial prayers, psalms, and readings will take place on Wednesday, May 1, at 5:30 p.m., at the Wall of Remembrance at Alliance Cemetery, 970 Gershal Ave., Norma, NJ.

The commemoration will continue with a Zachor Service of Remembrance on Sunday, May 5, at 5 p.m., at Beth Israel Congregation, 1015 E. Park Ave., Vineland, NJ. Included in this program will be the annual presentation of the Miles Lerman Holocaust Education Award. This year’s recipients will be Phyllis Dunkelman and Murray Ressler. Holocaust survivors currently living in Vineland, they have spoken about the Holocaust and his experiences in many public forums. The service will also include special musical selections relating to Holocaust remembrance. Students from Vineland High School teacher Terry Kuhnreich’s “Search for Conscience” class will read essays on the Holocaust.

Both parts of the commemoration will include participation by area Jewish clergy.

“This annual commemoration is a moving way to memorialize those who perished in the greatest tragedy to befall the Jewish people—not only those from our area who perished but all the millions who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis in the Holocaust,” said M. Jay Einstein, President of Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem Counties. “Through the years, it has also been a valuable learning experience for our school students who have been studying the Holocaust—especially in this time of increased anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and racial intolerance. 

Yom HaShoah, which takes place on the 27th of Nissan in the Jewish calendar, was established as a national holiday by the Israeli Knesset on August 19, 1953, when its observance was signed into law by Israeli President David Ben-Gurion and Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. The holiday honors the 6 million Jews, including 1½ million children, who died in the European Holocaust during World War II.

For more information, please call the office of the Jewish Federation of Cumberland, Gloucester & Salem at 856-696-4445.