At this time of remembrance and reflection, the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will commemorate Yom HaShoah —Holocaust Remembrance Day — with a series of events beginning with the chance for visitors and students to hear from Holocaust survivors on Tuesday, April 21.
“For many, it is impossible to know when their family and friends perished,” Museum Director Dr. David G. Marwell remarked. “To mourn them and to commemorate the loss of all who perished, a special day has been set aside — Yom HaShoah —a day when we gather to remember. It is the Museum’s daily mission to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust through remembrance, education, and the continuity of Jewish culture,” Dr. Marwell said.
We welcome all students and visitors to meet with Holocaust survivors? to take part in the Annual Gathering of Remembrance? to visit the Garden of Stones, Andy Goldsworthy’s contemplative space? and to attend Blooming Through the Ashes, a powerful program about rebuilding and healing after tragedy. The following are the major events open to the public and the media. Press planning to attend any event should have a press credential issued by either the NYPD or the UN.
Tuesday, April 21
Yom HaShoah
The Museum invites the community to come to the Museum to remember those who were lost, and learn from those who survived. Hear personal stories from artifact donors, Holocaust survivors, and their families. Museum admission is free with suggested donation all day.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Holocaust survivors will be in the galleries discussing their experiences. Many are artifact donors who will stand with their objects and explain their significance. Photoop for press: Many public and private school students will be in the galleries to hear from survivors and their descendants throughout the day. Call the press office for more information.
From 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Visitors are welcome to spend time in Andy Goldsworthy’s Garden of Stones, a contemplative space at the Museum. The garden is a living memorial and is a tribute to the hardship, struggle, tenacity, and survival experienced by those who endured the Holocaust. It was planted by Goldsworthy, and Holocaust survivors and their families in 2003.
An additional resource available to those visiting the Museum on Yom HaShoah is the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The Museum is the first venue outside of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC to host the complete Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The Registry is a national database of over 195,000 records that documents the experiences of survivors and helps survivors search for relatives and friends. Created in 1981 by the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the Registry has been developed by the USHMM since 1993.
Wednesday, April 22 at 7 p.m.
Blooming Through the Ashes
With editor Clifford Chanin, The Legacy Project? Barbara KirshenblattGimblett, New York University? with dramatic readings.
This program will explore, through art and staged readings, how societies rebuild and heal through remembrance. The evening will start with a presentation of images by visual artists that focus on trauma and remembrance. Actors then will read excerpts of Blooming Through the Ashes, which features over 60 writings about the mass violence of the 20 th century and its aftermath, and includes works by Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney, Toni Morrison, Elie Wiesel, and Pablo Neruda. The anthology includes works related to almost a century of tragedies all over the world including those in Armenia, Cambodia, South Africa, and Europe.
The panelists will trace the different manifestations of memory, from the trauma of survivors through the representation of this history in museums, and the place public remembrance has on how future generations attempt to understand the impact of past violence.
Clifford Chanin is the founder and president of the Legacy Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to understanding the enduring consequences of traumatic violence in societies around the world. Previously, he was associate director of Arts and Humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation. He also serves as senior program advisor at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. He is the coeditor of Blooming Through the Ashes: An International Anthology on Violence and the Human Spirit.
Barbara KirshenblattGimblett is a professor of Performance Studies and an affiliated professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. She is the author of several books including Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage. She is a Fellow and Past President of the American Folklore Society and serves on the Advisory Council of the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, Smithsonian Institution? and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
Sunday, April 26 at 3 p.m.
Annual Gathering of Remembrance
New York City’s largest and oldest Holocaust commemoration will once again bring together nearly 2,000 Holocaust survivors and their families to fulfill the sacred obligation to remember the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. This year’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance will take place at Congregation EmanuEl of the City of New York on Fifth Avenue and 65 th Street. The event is organized by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
The program will include remarks by elected officials and dignitaries including Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gabriella Shalev? Museum Chairman and Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau? Museum Director Dr. David G. Marwell? Holocaust survivor Roman Kent? and Museum leadership. Musical selections will feature Cantor Joseph Malovany, the Temple EmanuEl Choir, and the HaZamir International Jewish High School Choir.
The theme of this year’s ceremony is the appreciation of Holocaust survivors who have helped make a better world for us all. Those who survived have had a particular responsibility to remember those who died and to live lives of meaning. Whether through strength, determination, or fate, survivors moved from darkness to light, rebuilding their lives and communities. Although their experiences during the war marked them forever, their courage, resilience, and fortitude, and the world they have created is inspiring. They continue to inspire with their acts of charity, their public service, and the vital spirit they carry with them. We thank all survivors for teaching each generation that, despite trauma and sadness, life must – and can — continue.
The Museum has been the main sponsor and organizer of the Annual Gathering of Remembrance for the last seven years and a part of it for more than 20 years. The Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO), as led by the late Benjamin Meed, started the Annual Gathering over 40 years ago. Cosponsors of the event are the AntiDefamation League, the Consulate General of Israel, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Jewish Labor Committee, The Council of Young Presidents, New York Board of Rabbis, UJAFederation of New York, and the Young Friends of the Museum. -- www.mjhnyc.org
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