Students Remember the Horrors of Genocide with Yom Ha’Shoah Events
Hillel.org, DC
May 1 2006
With drama, music and the sounds of thousands of names being read,
Jewish students across the country led their campuses in remembering
the Holocaust last week during Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)
and Holocaust Awareness Week activities. Hillel student leaders ensured
that the lessons learned from the Holocaust and other genocides would
not be forgotten as they planned meaningful programs that touched
the entire community.
University of Rhode Island Hillel paid tribute not only to the
victims of the Holocaust, but also to those currently suffering in
the Darfur region of Sudan with a "Field of Flags" on campus grounds.
Students planted more than 2,000 multi-colored flags that represented
both the 6 million who perished during the Holocaust and the 400,000
victims of the Darfurian genocide. Although a memorial service provided
a more intimate setting for reflection, URI Hillel Director Amy Olson
said the field’s central campus location gave thousands more students
and faculty an easy way to experience the exhibit throughout the week.
"It’s hard to get people to come out for something because everyone
is busy, they have a class or they have to study. This way, everybody
walks through the campus and experiences it without making that extra
effort to go to something," Olson told the Providence Journal.
URI students weren’t the only ones who called attention to the victims
of other genocides during Yom Hashoah programs. University of Southern
California Hillel partnered with the campus Jewish Law Students’
Association and the Armenian Students’ Association to sponsor a
candlelight vigil in remembrance of the Holocaust and the 1.5 million
Armenians who died during the 1915-1923 genocide in Turkey. At North
Carolina State University, Hillel students organized a campus-wide
information fair in which visitors could learn more about the Holocaust
and the situations in Darfur, Kosovo and Bosnia, among others.
"The reason we’re doing this is because there are still a lot of
problems with people hating each other and persecuting each other,"
Ben Mazur, the NC State Hillel treasurer, told the Technician student
newspaper. "Every time this happens, we try to learn a lesson from it
and we try to educate people about it, but there are still problems
like this going on today."
The arts continued to play a vital role in conveying the memories of
the lives lost in the Holocaust. University of Missouri, Columbia
Hillel co-sponsored "Silenced Voices, a Concert of Remembrance,"
which brought back to the life the music of many Jewish composers
that was banned by the Nazi regime. Ithaca College Hillel brought
author Ken Shuldman and filmmaker Rich Newberg to campus to discuss
their works on chronicling the experiences of Holocaust survivors.
And at California’s Chapman University, the Hillel Foundation of Orange
County and the Student Society of Entertainment Arts partnered to
present the Jurek Becker play "Jakob the Liar." Senior Anna Scanlon,
who adapted the play about misinformation in a German-occupied Jewish
ghetto in 1944, said it has become an important educational tool for
both the audience and the actors and crew.
"The students involved have really learned a lot about the Holocaust
as well as Judaism. They went to a special learners Shabbat since
only two members of the cast are Jewish, and they really, really
liked it. I think it’s brought more humanity to the event, even more
so than the audience, because they live and breathe these characters
for several weeks and get to know their character like a good friend,
so it makes the Holocaust much more real," Scanlon said.
As in previous years, many Hillels also sponsored daylong or 24-hour
vigils in which students took turns reading the names of Holocaust
victims. Hillels at West Virginia University, the University of
Virginia, Binghamton University, the University of Iowa, Arizona
State University and Elon University were among those who organized
readings. Holocaust remembrance activities were funded, in part,
by the Darmstaedter Estate through the UJA-Federation of New York.
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