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The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, a testament to the endurance of a people, teaches essential and unforgettable lessons about the danger of intolerance. Yom HaShoah at the Museum Each year, the Museum observes Yom HaShoah with a candle-lighting ceremony that brings together Holocaust survivors and high-school students throughout the New York area in a moving demonstration of the power of passing memories from one generation to the next. Throughout the day, artifact donors, Holocaust survivors, and their families are stationed in the Museum's galleries to share their personal recollections and the stories of their artifacts with students and other visitors. Admission to the Museum is free with suggested donation. In accordance with the Museum's central message of remembrance, survivors share their memories with an audience of young people, students from area Jewish day schools, as well as the New York and New Jersey public schools. Hearing the history directly from those who lived it has an impact on students that is far stronger than any book, film, or lecture. As the years pass, it becomes increasingly more important for succeeding generations to hear first-person accounts of this incredible tragedy. Annual Gathering of Remembrance In the community-wide observance for Yom HaShoah, the Museum, the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants co-sponsor New York's oldest and largest Holocaust commemoration ceremony. More than 2,000 survivors and their families are joined by elected officials and other members of the community in a memorial service that fulfills the sacred Jewish obligation to remember. Holocaust survivors participate with their children and grandchildren in a moving and historic candle-lighting ceremony that physically demonstrates the importance and power of passing memories from one generation to the next. In 2010, the Annual Gathering of Remembrance was held on April 11 at Temple Emanu-El, located at Fifth Avenue and 65th Street. 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 used to document the lives of survivors who came to the United States and other countries after World War II. It was created to document the experiences of survivors and help survivors search for relatives and friends. The Registry includes over 195,000 records related to survivors and their families. Although most of the survivors who have registered live in North America, the Registry includes the names of survivors from all over the world. This marks the first time that access to the complete Registry has been made permanently available outside of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Created in 1981 by the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the Registry has been developed by the USHMM since 1993. For more information about the Registry, please visit our Resource Center. Zachor... A Holocaust Commemoration Kit Zachor, to remember, is a sacred Jewish obligation. Through the process of Holocaust commemoration, Jews recount its history, explore its meanings, remember its victims, celebrate its heroes, and learn lessons of tolerance, resilience, and hope for the future. The Museum has published Zachor: A Holocaust Commemoration Kit, designed to help middle and high school students and teachers create their own relevant, meaningful, and age-appropriate Shoah remembrance ceremony. The kit provides guidelines for a moving emotional experience and an educational context for learning, reflection, and action. Materials include tips for planning a Holocaust commemoration and examples of the elements that make a meaningful event; a history of Holocaust Remembrance Day; songs, prayers, and poems; and statements of remembrance. Six candles for use in the ceremony are included in the kit as well as discussion questions and activities for the classroom. For more information about Zachor, or other Holocaust education curriculum, please contact the Education Staff.
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Copyright 2009, Museum of Jewish Heritage. All rights reserved. |
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