Members of our shul and the North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue will meet on Zoom on Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30  p.m., to join with Jewish communities around the world observing Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day — honoring the Six Million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, and antisemitism rises throughout the world,  remembering those who were lost from 1939-1945 becomes critical to a mission to “Never Forget” what hatred can inspire.

The online ceremony will be led by Rabbi Gadi of our shul and by Rabbi Barbara Sheryll of the Cutchogue synagogue. The focus of the ceremony is the lighting of yellow candles, a reminder of the yellow stars Jews were required to wear sewn to their outer garments to identify them as Jews. Attached to each candle is the name of a child lost in the Holocaust. In addition, shul member Rena Wiseman will share her story of growing up as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and the impact of that dark history on her own family, a generation later.

Although the candles are distributed free of charge, those choosing to acknowledge the gift of the candle with a contribution can do so with a check made out to the shul, or online logging on to the website, www.tiferethisraelgreenport.org, and clicking on the donate tab. Funds collected are used to pay bus transportation for Greenport High School’s 10th-grade history class to attend the Holocaust Museum in Glen Cove as the culmination of their unit of study on the Holocaust.

In previous years, several students who attended the museum have attended a Friday evening Shabbat service at Congregation Tifereth Israel. They willingly share their thoughts on what they learned about events that occurred in the past and how to combat hatred in their own communities now. Comments by the students resonated affectingly with synagogue congregants, many of whom may have lost relatives in the infamous concentration camps in Germany and Poland, where innocent Jewish families were rounded up and murdered. The students are scheduled to attend via Zoom at the Shabbat service on Friday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m.

The observance of Yom HaShoah challenges all generations to remember the horrors and persecutions of the past, and to instill in all generations the commitment to ensure it doesn’t happen again.