While the current situation prevents us from coming together physically as a community, we must all the more so come together to remember and to mourn.
Throughout Australia, there are several online communal events which I encourage you to take part in. Below is a short list of the ones I am aware of:
1. From 5:15pm – 6pm on 87.8FM and online here, the Jewish Holocaust Centre supported by J-AIR will be running a special community broadcast ‘Together We Remember’.
2. At 6pm the Jewish Holocaust Centre together with LaunchPad are hosting an online interactive event “Turning Memory into Action”, where you’ll have the opportunity to light a candle. More information here.
3. At 7pm The Jewish Community Council of Victoria in conjunction with The Jewish Holocaust Centre will be screening testimonials by Jewish Holocaust Survivors. More information here.
4. At 7pm The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies will be live-streaming their Commemoration. More information here.
5. On Yad Vashem’s website you can access photo galleries, videos of the torch-lighters, educational materials and related online exhibitions and information pertaining to this year’s theme: “Rescue by Jews during the Holocaust: Solidarity in a Disintegrating World”.
1. Museum of Inherited Memories – Follow @museumofinheritedmemories on Instagram to view photography, film and media art, writing and performance, songs and stories from artists around Australia and the world who have each responded to their own inherited memories and stories of the Holocaust. More information here.
2. At 6pm, there will be a communal conversation with Holocaust Educators Matti Borowski and Ricki Mainzer along with survivor Guta Goldstein on Zoom, ID 445 081 2397.
3. At 7:30–9pm, the Jewish Holocaust Centre and Jewish Museum of Australia host another special event “Cohesion: Building Community in Challenging Times” featuring Sue Hampel OAM, Co-President of the Jewish Holocaust Centre. More information here.
4. Here is a link to the testimony given by Vera Freidin [previously Kaplan, nee Windholz] at last year’s Communal gathering in Robert Blackwood hall.
5. I highly recommend a series of short videos by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust in London. These offer an insightful perspective on some of the biggest questions posed by the The Shoah. Click here for the series.
I encourage everyone to use tonight and tomorrow as an opportunity to engage, reflect and continue to bear witnesses. May the promise from our prophet Isiah, “The Lord will wipe away tears from all faces,” be speedily fulfilled in our days!