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YOUNGSTOWN -- The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation will host its annual Holocaust commemoration programs for Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance) today and Sunday.
The 30th annual Community Holocaust Commemoration event will be noon today in the rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse, 120 Market St. The annual Shoah Memorial Ceremony will be at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, 505 Gypsy Lane.
Both programs are free and open to the public.
Yom Hashoah is an internationally recognized day set aside for remembering all victims of the Holocaust and for reminding society of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign.
This year's local theme is "Stars Without a Heaven -- Children in the Holocaust." Winners of the JCRC's student Holocaust writing and multimedia contest will be recognized at the Community Holocaust Commemoration at the Courthouse. The presentation of a proclamation by Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, as well as a memorial candle lighting ceremony to honor the 6 million who died, will be part of the event.
The memorial ceremony at the JCC will include a keynote presentation by Mark B. Cole. Cole began teaching in the history department at Cleveland State University in fall 2014. As of summer 2021, he also is the executive director of the Holocaust & Genocide Education Network (HGEN).
Cole specializes in modern Europe and Germany, specifically the history of Nazism and the Holocaust, Jewish Studies, as well as the histories of consumption and food more generally. He has presented his research across the United States as well as in Germany and Israel. He has been a Fellow of the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., and the Holocaust Educational Foundation at Northwestern University.
The program also will include a candle lighting ceremony and participation by children and grandchildren of Survivors.
The Holocaust Commemoration and Education Task Force, a committee of the JCRC, is chaired by Rabbi Joseph Schonberger and Rochelle Miller, children of Holocaust survivors, and is comprised of numerous survivors, children of survivors and other interested volunteers from the community.
The Jewish Community Relations Council represents the Jewish communities of Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania to safeguard the rights of Jews here, in Israel, and around the world. In 2023, it is celebrating the founding of the state of Israel 75 years ago with a variety of programming. Visit jewishyoungstown.org to learn more.