Jews Begin Observance of Yom HaShoah, Remembering the Victims of the Holocaust

The March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau is held annually on Yom HaShoah

A virtual commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day will be conducted Sunday by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, remembering those who perished, honoring those who survived and marking the 75th anniversary of liberation and the end of the Holocaust.

The program, titled “75 Years After Liberation: Turning Memory into Action” will begin at 2 p.m. Registration can be made at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9RFa7oKST4ipWe97EJmA7g

The keynote speaker will be David Estrin, founder and CEO of Together We Remember, a nonprofit organization established in 2017 that seeks to transform April, Genocide Awareness Month, into a global month of remembrance and activism for all victims of identity-based violent hatred in history through coordinated vigils across the world and on social media.

Other scheduled speakers include Edith Frankie, a Holocaust survivor, Israeli Consul General Hillel Newman, Israel’s senior representative to the Pacific Southwest, and Rabbi Jocee Hudson of Temple Israel of Hollywood.

With public gatherings prohibited in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the museum opted for a virtual gathering to continue its tradition of commemorating Yom HaShoah.

Support for the program was provided through the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Arts Development Fee Program and Poland’s Consulate General in Los Angeles.

Under a 1953 law passed by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is annually observed on the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, which begins at sundown Tuesday and ends at sundown Wednesday.

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Friday declaring Sunday through April 26 as the “Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust,” and calling for “appropriate study, prayers and commemoration, and to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution by remembering the lessons of this atrocity so that it is never repeated.”

“As this year’s Yom HaShoah commences, let us remember the millions of lives extinguished in the Holocaust, including those of Jewish, Polish, and Slavic ancestry, Roma and Sinti, individuals with mental and physical disabilities, gays, political dissidents and dozens of other groups, and let us reaffirm our commitment to preserving and carrying forward their stories so that such repugnant acts of evil never occur again,” Trump declared in the proclamation.