Please Join Us On Zoom, Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m.

Members and friends of our shul will remember the moving ceremonies planned by our shul to observe Holocaust Memorial Day. In recent years, our participation in the worldwide Yellow Candle Project has touched each of us as members of the global Jewish community. At the same time, we gather locally on Zoom with members of the shul family and our Jewish neighbors and friends to reflect on the six million lost amid the horrific acts of aggression that vanquished Jewish populations in major cities and peaceful villages all across Europe. We gather in great numbers as one population to honor their memories.

This year, the Yellow Candle Yom HaShoah event will be held on Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., on Zoom. Shul member Rena Wiseman will share her moving Holocaust story with all of us. Prior to the event, each individual shul member or family will receive a yellow candle, either delivered to your residence or mailed to you. Inside the candle package, you will find a letter about the project and the name of a child lost in the Holocaust. You might think of that child as we light our candles together.

The candle is a gift to you. But should you wish to acknowledge the gift with a charitable contribution, we ask that you consider $36, $54, $72 or more — multiples of chai — funds that will underwrite bus transportation to a Holocaust Museum for Greenport High School 10th graders at the conclusion of their history class unit on the Holocaust. Last year, some of the students joined us at a Shabbat service to talk about what they had learned — a meaningful event for the students and a moving event for those of us listening. We are looking forward to another student visit this year.

Just as the study unit and museum visit represent powerful lessons from the past, our lighted candles are symbols of communal resistance that fight against the antisemitism that continues to build in the world.