New York City’s largest and oldest Holocaust commemoration brought together more than 2,000 individuals including Holocaust survivors and their families to fulfill the sacred obligation to remember the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. This event is held each year on the Sunday closest to Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day (which is May 5). This year’s Annual Gathering of Remembrance was held on May 1, 2016 at Temple Emanu-El of the City of New York on Fifth Avenue and East 65th Street. The event was organized by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.
As is tradition at the Annual Gathering, Holocaust survivors lit candles with younger generations, literally passing the flame of memory from one generation to the next. Two symbolic candle-lightings took place and provide the most compelling images of the day. Women survivors lit 36 candles escorted by members of the third generation. Later in the program, six memorial candles were lit by six families, representing Holocaust survivors, their children, and grandchildren and the continuity of Jewish life.
The afternoon program featured remarks by dignitaries including U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Israel Knesset Member Merav Michaeli, who is a granddaughter of Rudolf Kasztner. Museum Trustee Judah Gribetz, together with Museum Vice Chair Ann Oster and Trustee Rita Lerner, both daughters of Holocaust survivors, led the proceedings and offered personal reflections. Holocaust survivor Esther Geizhals’s daughter, Jacqueline Krim, spoke on behalf of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants. Jordana Reisman Stone, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, represented the Third Generation. Musical selections featured Cantor Joseph Malovany, the Temple Emanu-El Choir, and the HaZamir International Jewish High School Choir.
The Museum has been the main sponsor and organizer of the Annual Gathering of Remembrance for the last 13 years and a part of it for more than 20 years. Co-sponsors of the event are the Anti-Defamation League, Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, Consulate General of Israel in New York, Council of Young Jewish Presidents, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Jewish Labor Committee, New York Board of Rabbis, UJA-Federation of New York, and the Young Friends of the Museum. In addition, 8 young leadership organizations helped support the event.