Interfaith Yom ha-Shoah commemoration to feature music, film

This year’s statewide interfaith commemoration of Yom ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, will take place at Temple Emanu-El, in Providence, on May 1 at 7 p.m.  The program is multidenominational and all are invited to attend.

The evening will begin with a candle-lit procession of Holocaust survivors, including second-generation survivors, accompanied by the recitation of the names of family members lost to the Nazis. Noted harpist Judie Tenenbaum will perform during the procession.

Next on the program is a screening of “The Fence Between Us,” which examines the Holocaust through the lens of filmmakers. Two Rhode Island-based survivors, Jorge Gardos and Albert Silverstein, are featured in the 13-minute documentary, which was produced by University of Rhode Island film students.

The ceremony will also feature several musical firsts. The Hazamir International Jewish Teen Choir’s Providence Chapter will premiere Judith Lynn Stillman’s new choral arrangement of Ilse Weber’s “Wiegala.” Weber sang this lullaby to the children in her care, including her own son, while they were marched into the gas chambers. Stillman, a professor at Rhode Island College, is a noted pianist and composer who has performed across the globe.

A short but historically significant piece of music that was recently unearthed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will be performed in a new transcription for violin and piano by Stillman.  Holocaust survivor Gardos will play violin for the piece, which the Auschwitz men’s prisoner orchestra played to entertain Nazi officers.

In addition, Anush Avetisyan will perform songs related to the Armenian genocide.

The annual Never Again Award will be presented to the sponsors of the bill – which is now law – that requires Holocaust and genocide education in Rhode Island public schools: Sen. Gayle Goldin, Rep. Katherine Kazarian, Sen. Josh Miller and former Rep. Aaron Regunberg.

Yom ha-Shoah commemorates the annihilation of 6 million Jews, along with people from many other nations, as a result of the extreme racist attitudes, policies and actions of Nazi Germany and its collaborators. The day also celebrates Jewish resistance during this period.

The annual interfaith commemoration is a collaboration between the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island; the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, in Providence; the R.I. State Council of Churches; the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island; and Temple Emanu-El.

Submitted by Lev Poplow