Annual Westchester Countywide

Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration

Keeping the Memory Alive: Generation to Generation

The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) and Westchester Jewish Council (WJC) present the Annual Westchester Countywide Yom Hashoah Holocaust Commemoration each year in April at the beautiful Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center Garden of Remembrance at 148 Martine Avenue, White Plains. This event is held to commemorate the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

In 2023, the Annual Countywide Yom Hashoah Commemoration 80^th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was held on Tuesday, April 18th. A crowd estimated at close to 350 people attended the event and featured a keynote presentation by Holocaust Survivor Dr. Aliza Erber, who shared a story of how her mother had to give her away as a young child to live in an underground bunker and how she survived to ultimately reunite with her after the end of WWII. To see and hear her moving talk, click here.

The program began with the Opening of the Gates by Hillels of Westchester students, and a Sounding of the Shofar by Mitchell Ostrove, Board member, HHREC and WJC. Following the opening there was a Procession of Rescued Torahs from synagogues across Westchester and neighboring counties. Locations of origin were read by Cantor Robin Joseph, President of Kol Hazzanim, Westchester Community of Cantors and Cantor at Temple Beth Shalom of Hastings; a welcome message by Michael Gyory, Chairman HHREC; an Invocation by Rev. Doris Dalton, Chair of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission; and remarks by Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

The program also featured a Candle Lighting by the Somers Holocaust Commission Student Winners, and the Holocaust Kaddish was delivered by Rabbi Moshe Edelman, Westchester Board of Rabbis. Closing remarks were delivered by William H. Schrag, President WJC.

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