East Valley Yom Hashoah program

The Center for Holocaust Education and Human Dignity of the East Valley Jewish Community Center will host a daylong program commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Registration is required for all programs. To register, click here.  All programs are free except for the Open Beit Midrash guided tour, which includes a kosher lunch.  To make a payment, click here.

• Self-guided tours (Noon-3 p.m.): “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Bedzin Ghetto” is an exhibit created by the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University that tells the story of young people in the Jewish ghetto of Bedzin, Poland, before, during and after the Holocaust. Reservations are required.
• Guided tour and lunch (11 a.m.): Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the above exhibit as part of Open Beit Midrash. The cost is $14, which includes a kosher lunch following the tour. Reservations are required by April 29.To register, click here. To make a payment, click here.
• Screening of “Shalom Italia” (1 p.m.): This documentary by Tamar Tal Anati tells the story of three Italian Jewish brothers set off on a journey through Tuscany, in search of a cave where they hid as children to escape the Nazis. Their quest, full of humor, food and Tuscan landscapes, straddles the boundary between history and myth, both of which really, truly happened. Reservations are required.
• Teacher’s workshop (4-5:30 p.m.): In this free workshop, Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, will lead a tour of the exhibit and discuss how to approach stories from the Holocaust with students.  The program is geared toward teachers who teach high school or college students. Reservations are required.
• Yom Hashoah ceremony (6 p.m.): Procession of survivors and their descendants and a candle-lighting ceremony; presentation by Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig, author of “Lonely Chameleon”; presentation by Bjorn Krondorfer, who will share his story about finding out as an adult that his father was a German soldier at a slave labor camp in Poland; and reading of names, Mourner’s Kaddish, El Maleh Rachamim led by Rabbi Michael Beyo. Reservations are required.

Partners of this East Valley JCC program include The Martin-Springer Institute of Northern Arizona University, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley and the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation.