04/28/2008
Holocaust commemoration set April 28
by Terry Taylor, Interfaith Paths to Peace
The annual Yom HaShoah Holocaust remembrance event sponsored by Jewish Community Federation’s Community Relations Council will be at 7 p.m. Monday, April 28, at Bellarmine University, Frazier Hall. The program, "Faces of Resistance," will feature preeminent Holocaust educator Dr. Rachel Korazim as guest speaker. Several Holocaust survivors who live in Louisville will participate, and the program will include music presented by the Christ Church United Methodist Chancel Choir. Students from several local high schools who are studying the Holocaust this year will also be participating to show their resistance to prejudice and hatred, and to promote tolerance.
Several Louisvillians met Korazim in Israel, and found her to be such an engaging teacher, that they sought to bring her to Louisville for the Yom HaShoah Commemoration. She is the academic director of
distance learning programs for the Jewish Agency for Israel Department of Education, and specializes in Holocaust education.
This year’s program will also include a commemoration of Holocaust survivor Ernie Marx, a cherished member of the Louisville Jewish community who passed away this past year. Marx was a frequent guest
teacher in classrooms across Kentuckiana, bringing the lessons of tolerance and diversity to life and connecting with young people throughout the region.
In addition, the community will recognize and honor Fred Whittaker and his students from St. Francis of Assisi, who successfully lobbied the Kentucky legislature this year for the passage of the Ernie Marx
Resolution, which calls for Kentucky schools to teach about genocide and the Holocaust.
Yom HaShoah is also an opportunity to remember those who were lost during the Holocaust. The names of Louisvillians’ family members who died will be remembered. A candlelighting ceremony will recall all 11
million victims of the Holocaust, Jews, martyrs, civilian Soviets, Poles, Slavs and others, those who opposed the Nazis, the mentally ill, the Gypsies, the homosexuals, resistance fighters and Righteous
Gentiles, those who risked their own lives to save others. Individuals will also be able to light memorial candles.
This program is free and open to the public.

