Opening Music & Movement
Jake Kotin
The JCCNV Dance Academy Company
The Community Choir
Blowing the Shofar
Eyes of the Soul
National Anthem, USA
Welcome
Connie Pesachowitz, President, Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia
Opening Remarks
Steven David Stone, Northern Virginia Co-Chair, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington
Rabbi Michael Ragozin, Congregation Sha’are Shalom of Leesburg
The Media & The American Public - WE KNEW
Pastor Gerry Creedon, Chair, Peace & Justice Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of Arlington
Jacqueline Fuller, Host & Executive Producer, Interfaith Connections, Fairfax
We knew.
Despite self-protective myths to the contrary, the American newspaper reading public during the Second World War knew early
and in excruciatingly explicit detail of the systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe….
Although coverage was inconsistent, news of the mass destruction of the Jews came early, prominently and widely to America.
… for at least the last three years of the war, while 6 million Jews were being murdered, we knew.
…Nor was it just President Franklin Roosevelt and the State Department officials with access to secret cables who knew. The
American public itself read in its morning and evening papers that the Jews were being wiped out.
… Although the news was often displayed prominently in the papers, it was just as often buried. The discrepancy between the
enormity of the news – more than 1 million slaughtered – and the “play” The New York Times gave its six-paragraph story on
page 7… embodies in microcosm the American press’s coverage of the Holocaust. The news was there, but not always
prominently or consistently displayed.
Ron Hollander, “WE KNEW: America’s Newspapers Report the Holocaust” from Why Didn’t the Press Shout, p 41
Robert Long, Genocide & Social Justice Educator, A.G. Wright Middle School
Tonight we will travel back to look at some of the reporting as it was happening in real time. We will look at coverage early in
the war. And we will recount the first hand testimony that resulted in the Auschwitz Protocols and the Allies’ belated public
declaration that the Final Solution was fact, that the extermination of millions of Jews was occurring in the depths of Poland
and killing factories in the East.
And yet our elected leaders and military generals resisted calls to bomb rail lines and stop the mass murders.
And yet our press and public resisted calls for more open immigration.
Throughout and even after the war, polling showed an American public whipped up by the likes of radio personality Father
Coughlin. It was a public anti-Semitism simmering at “slightly below the boiling point.”
Snapshot of the American Public
Rev. Gerry Johnson, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Fairfax
In the estimates of historian David Wyman,
 35-40% of Americans after the war would have been supportive of
or sympathetic to an anti-Jewish campaign,
 30% would have stood up against it,
 and the rest would have remained indifferent.
David Wyman, “The Abandonment of the Jews,” p 15
2
Megilat Ha’Shoah
Chanted by Cantor Jason Kaufman
Read by Rabbi Brett Isserow
Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Alexandria
Written by The Schecter Institute of Jewish Studies
and The Conservative Rabbinical Assembly
What befell the people Israel in Nazi Europe is beyond classification, and what confronted its sons and daughters
defies description. Untold numbers were forced out of their homes, torn from their families, trampled in the dust, and
worked to death. So much have I seen and so much have I yet to see, but what was revealed to me there I never
could see again. All of the words in the world, created and yet to be created, in every single language, will never be
able to describe even a small part of what was displayed before my eyes. And this too do I know:
Never will I be able to forget, and never will I have the power to understand.
WE KNEW - And Didn’t Respond
Rabbi Rose Jacob, Fauquier Jewish Congregation
We knew, and we ignored or remained indifferent.
Or as Jewish activists, we struggled with the right approach and bickered internally about how to respond.
Some rallied and protested and were betrayed by indifference. And we grapple with understanding why.
Noted historians like Deborah Lipstadt and Marvin Kalb, try to offer some answers, present some context:
the isolationism and anti-Semitism that pervaded the era and public opinion,
the unprecedented atrocity of the Holocaust that defied human comprehension,
the public’s skepticism of news reports following decades of propagandistic ‘yellow journalism’
and inflated war crime reports that pervaded coverage of the First World War
Kalb talks of patriotic American journalists who sought to cover heroism on the warfront and sacrifices on the home front.
For their stories the immense human tragedy of genocide in distant killing factories in Eastern Europe did not neatly fit.
And in a final search for explanation, Lipstadt offers a psychological factor:
“When reality is intolerable, it is less burdensome to deny its existence than to deal with the guilt it might arouse. “
Marvin Kalb, “Journalism and the Holocaust 1933 - 1945” from Why Didn’t the Press Shout, p1-12
Now let us offer prayers and readings, song and reflection that glimpse upon media coverage and public response to the
Holocaust. As we do, let us also reflect upon what we read in our news media today, what we choose to absorb,
and how we act and respond in our own time.
On Disbelieving Atrocities
Snapshot of the
American Public
Sant Gupta, Durga Temple, Fairfax Station
Mark Bold, Christian Law Institute, Lynchburg
“By the end of 1938, one estimate had it, there were
some 800 organizations in the U.S. that could be
described as fascist and anti-Semitic. Most were so
tiny and ineffectual as to be all but invisible outside
their immediate locality, like the National Gentile
League of Washington, D.C. But all stood as
particularly base expressions of the anti-Semitism that
crept through much of American society, whether of the
genteel middle class kind that restricted country club
membership or of the religious variety that infused
much of the Church with old antagonisms
“You are the crowd who walk past laughing on the road;
and there are a few of us, escaped victims or eyewitnesses
of the things which happen in the thicket and who, haunted
by our memoires, go on screaming on the wireless,
yelling at you in the newspapers, and in public meetings,
theaters and cinemas….
You shake yourselves like puppies who have got their fur
wet… and you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier
which stifles all sound… (there is an) inability to
communicate the unique horror of this experience…
So far three million have died. It is the greatest mass
killing in recorded history; and it goes on daily, hourly, as
regularly as the ticking of your watch.”
Arthur Koestler, Hungarian Jewish Journalist & Holocaust
Survivor, ”On Disbelieving Atrocities,” January 9, 1944
Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression:
America in the 1930s, p 320
3
Anti-Semitism on the Airwaves: Father Coughlin, the Radio Priest
The Rev. Daniel Velez-Rivera, St Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, Leesburg
During the 1930s and 1940s, a virulent anti-Semitism pervaded American society. Jews were unacceptable to many
employers and unwelcome at many universities and social clubs. Jokes about “kikes” and “Yids” were commonplace,
and oceanside beaches posted signs stating “No Dogs or Jews Allowed.”
...Such flagrant hostility toward a segment of society does not emerge of its own accord. The American news media
helped fuel anti-Semitism, with many newspapers openly supporting the various acts of discrimination… (and
featuring headlines like:) “Communism Is Jewish,” and “Jews Defile Our Christmas.”
But the single most influential anti-Semitic spokesman was the radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin.
Rodger Streitmalter, Mightier Than The Sword, 1997
Rabbi Linda Joseph, Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation, Ashburn “A worldwide sacred war was declared on Germany not by
Cantor Allen Leider, Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church
the United States, not by Great Britain, not by France, not
by any nation; but by the races of Jews.”
Coughlin aired on Sundays from 1926 to 1940. At his height, he
Father Coughlin’s “Social Justice ,” February 1942
reached the largest regular radio audiences in the world: 30-45
million individuals – more than one third of America’s population.
By 1933, he employed over 100 staff just to answer his mail.
Listeners were sending some $5 million a year, providing him with
ample funds for bold new ventures.
When CBS refused to renew his contract and NBC also rejected an
offer, Coughlin was able to build his own network of stations
spanning from Maine to Colorado.
Coughlin was not just a radio and print commentator, he was a
powerful actor on the national political stage. Coughlin’s National
Union for Social Justice was credited with defeating FDR initiatives,
sinking Congressional candidates and even launching a nativist 3rd
party Presidential candidate in 1936.
After the party’s embarrassing 1936 election results, Coughlin went
on to create the “Christian Front” movement in 1938, an all-white,
all-male, all-Christian movement.
The Front supported “buy Christian” boycotts in dozens of American
cities and was a reflection of Coughlin’s growing Nazi sympathies.
By 1939 Christian Front members had organized themselves into
“Coughlin storm troopers” and “Father Coughlin’s brownshirts,” to
mimic their own versions of Krystalnacht thuggery in U.S. cities.
From “Dr. Seuss Went To War,” A Catalogue of Political Cartoons 1941-1943.
Presented by Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla CA 92093
It was only after the war broke out in earnest, in May 1942, that
Coughlin’s pro-Nazi ravings were removed from the airwaves and
print media under the threat of federal sedition charges.
“There is a Jewish question. It is just as unfortunate that it
His fascism and fiery anti-Semitism had already left an indelible
mark in American public opinion and national policy. Father
Coughlin continued to serve in ministry until his retirement in 1966.
4
exists in the social world as it is that cancer exists in the
physical world.”
Father Coughlin’s “Social Justice ,” February 1942
Snapshot of the American Public
Douglas Bush, President, Annandale Stake, Church of the Latter Day Saints
In the early 1930s, a poll taken by a St. Paul Minnesota radio station asked if people
wanted to hear Father Coughlin’s Sunday radio program.
The response was overwhelming: 137,000 said yes
and 400 said no.
Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression: America in the 1930s, p239
Reporting on Extermination
Rajwant Singh, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Potomac, MD
Terry Angelotti, Founding Executive Director, Centreville Immigration Forum
Edward R Murrow’s highly acclaimed career in journalism spanned 25 years. During World War II
he flew over two dozen Allied combat missions despite CBS Radio’s concern for his safety. He
was the first reporter on the ground at the liberation of Buchenwald. Americans came to rely on his in-depth reporting from
London, like the below piece that aired on December 13, 1942:
...One is almost stunned into silence by some of the information reaching London. Some of it is months old, but it’s eye witness
stuff supported by a wealth of detail and vouched for by responsible governments. What is happening is this: Millions of human
beings, most of them Jews, are being gathered up with ruthless efficiency and murder.
... from Holland and Norway, from Poland – you have a picture of mass murder and moral depravity unequaled in the history of
the world. It is a horror beyond what the imagination can grasp.
Let me tell you a little about what’s happened in the Warsaw ghetto…. Ten thousand people were rounded up and shipped off.
After that, thousands more went each day... put in freight cars; the floors were covered with quicklime and chlorine. Those who
survived the journey were dumped out at one of three camps, where they were killed.
At a place called Treblinka a huge bulldozer is used to bury the
A Snapshot of the
bodies... The Jews are being systematically exterminated
American Public
throughout all Poland. Nobody knows how many have committed
Pratima Dharm, Hindu Chaplain, U.S. Army
suicide; nor does anyone know how many have gone mad. Some
of the victims ask their guards to shoot them, and sometimes the Edward Murrow’s report followed upon official Allied
confirmation of the “Final Solution,” a plan to exterminate the
guards demand a special fee for doing so….
entirety of European Jewry.
It seems that the Germans hope to escape retribution by the
In January 1943, a Gallup poll asked whether it was true that
sheer magnitude of their crimes. They are exterminating the
2 million Jews had already been murdered.
Jews and the potential leaders of the subject people with ruthless
47% of the Americans believed the tales of
efficiency. That is why newspapers, individuals and spokesmen
mass executions to be true
of the Church in this country are demanding that the government
29% dismissed it as a rumor;
make a solemn statement that retribution will be dealt out to those
the remaining 24% had no opinion.
responsible for the cold-blooded massacre of Jews in Poland.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007036
Even When God Is Silent
Michael Horvit, Composer
Community Choir
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when feeling it not.
I believe in God even when God is silent.
The text was found written on a wall in a basement in Cologne, Germany by Allied troops after World War II.
5
Hollywood Collaboration & Ben Hecht’s Defiance
Marco Grimaldo, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Richmond
Rabbi Amy Perlin, Temple B’nai Shalom, Fairfax Station
Rabbi Jennifer Weiner, Congregation Ner Shalom, Woodbridge
...entertainment can be politically of special value, ..the moment a person is conscious of propaganda, (it) becomes
ineffective. However as soon as propaganda. . . remains in the background . . . (it) becomes effective in every respect.”
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Reichsminister of Propaganda
The Nazi regime had a keen understanding of propaganda and the role of entertainment, especially movies, in shaping
public opinion. Nazi fomented protest of “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1933 had caught the U.S. film industry’s
attention. Though American Jews owned many of the major film companies, their concern for access to German markets
in the 1930s – the 2nd largest after the U.S. – was evident in the movies they produced, or chose not to. German interests
had success in halting production of a film alluding to Hitler as, “The Mad Dog of Europe,” and of virtually erasing any
mention of Jews from U.S. films throughout the war era.
From 1942 to 1945 Hollywood supported the war effort with
800 -1,500 feature films in theaters that treated World War
II… (yet) the studios released less than 10 films that even
mentioned the Jews in Germany…
Ben Hecht was an exception to this rule.
Ben Hecht came from a place (called Hollywood) that for
nearly 7 years had collaborated with Nazi Germany. He did
not know about the collaboration, of course. He did not know
that his own movies had been a source of great enjoyment to
German audiences throughout the 1930s. He certainly did
not know that his employers had invested the profits from his
movies in Nazi newsreels and German armament, and that
they had gone to all sorts of extreme lengths to protect their
investment in Germany.
He only knew that when he was young there had been
dozens of movies about Jews, and now there were none.
Hecht had asked his employers, why did they not “Stand up
as the great of Hollywood and proclaim in their films against
the German murder of their kind.”
The answer, they had said, was obvious, “Though they own
them, the movies are not theirs to use willy nilly for special
Jewish pleading.”
Ben Urwand, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler, p 244
He only knew that they would not allow him to write a
screenplay about what the Nazis were doing to the Jews...
Snapshot of the American Public
Rizwan Jaka, All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center, Sterling
MGM's 1940 film The Mortal Storm finally brought to the screen a direct representation of Nazis
persecuting an unnamed ‘minority group.’ An audience survey of 300 viewers found that
62 percent liked the acting,
65 percent understood that it was about changes brought about by Hitler,
45 percent appreciated the picture's "scenic beauty."
Only 7 percent came away realizing they'd just seen depicted barbarities
against Jews.
Ben Urwand, The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler, p 244
6
Rabbi David Kalender, Congregation Olam Tikvah, Fairfax
Rabbi Bruce Aft, Congregation Adat Reyim Springfield
Ben Hecht (1894 – 1964) was one of Hollywood’s most prolific contributors of the 20th Century. Among his
scores of screenwriting credits are Gone With the Wind, Spellbound, Mutiny on the Bounty, Some Like It Hot. He
was also a director, producer, playwright, novelist of 35 books and a journalist.
Never previously religious or political, Ben Hecht rose to action during the Holocaust and throughout the
formation of Israel. As part of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People, he mobilized the “We Will
Never Die,” performances. These rallies travelled to the largest U.S. cities and were presented before audiences
of tens of thousands, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, six Supreme Court Justices and countless
politicians and Hollywood luminaries. Though other Jewish advocates bristled at his tactics, “We Will Never Die”
and his ensuing media advertising campaign are credited with helping convince President Roosevelt to form the
War Refugees Board late in the war that saved over 200,000 lives in the waning years of the Holocaust.
The Ballad of the Doomed Jews - Ben Hecht
Four million Jews waiting for death
Oh hang and burn but -- quiet, Jews!
Don't be bothersome; save your breath The world is busy with other news.
Tell Him we hadn't quite the time
To stop the killing of all the Jews;
Tell Him we looked askance at the crime
But we were busy with other news.
Four million murders are quite a smear
Even our State Department views
The slaughter with much disfavor here
But then -- it's busy with other news.
Oh World be patient -- it will take
Some time before the murder crews
Are done. By Christmas you can make
Your Peace on Earth without the Jews.
You'll hang like a forest of broken trees
You'll burn in a thousand Nazi stews
And tell your God to forgive us please
For we were busy with other news.
Partisan Hymn
Community Choir
Lyrics by Hirsch Glick, Vilnius Ghetto, 1943
Music composed by Aleksey Surkov with lyrics later set to the music by Dmitri & Daniel Pokrass
Zog Nit Keyn Mol!
Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg,
Chotsh himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg;
Kumen vet noch undzer oysgebenktesho,
S’vet a poyk ton undzer trot: mir zenen do!
!‫זָאג נישט קיינמָאל‬
,‫זָאג נישט קיינמָאל ַאז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג‬
;‫כָאטש הימלען בלייענע פַֿארשטעלן בלויע טעג‬
– ‫קומען וועט נָאך אונדזער אויסגעבענקטע שעה‬
!‫ס'וועט ַא ּפויק טָאן אונדזער טרָאט – מיר זייַנען דָא‬
Never say that you have reached the very end,
Though leaden skies a bitter future may portend.
For the hour for which we’ve yearned will yet arrive,
And our marching steps will thunder: We survive!
7
A Snapshot of the American Public
“In 1939 a Roper opinion poll found that 53% of Americans believed that restrictions against Jews
were fully justified.
Roger Streitmalter, Mightier Than the Sword, p122
In 1942, in the midst of WWII, when respondents to another poll were asked which groups
represented the greatest threat to the American way of life, the three top answers were the
Germans, the Japanese, and the Jews”
Martin Ostrow, producer, America and the Holocaust: Deceit & Indifference, Alexandria, VA, PBS, 1994
The Auschwitz Protocols
The Rev. Mark Montgomery, Director of United College Ministries in Northern Virginia
Ross Diamond, Hillel Director, George Mason University
Rev. Margaret Corletti, Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington
Nazi persecution and killing of the Jews was well known
and documented throughout the 1930s. Mass deportations
and killings were reported without interruption from the
outset of the war. Even the atrocities in Auschwitz-Birkenau
were known to the world by 1941.
In May 1940 Auschwitz was used as a political prisoners
camp. For the remainder of that year and into 1941, Poles
and Jews were evicted from Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and
adjacent villages. Construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
camp complex began in earnest in October and within six
months, in March 1942, the first gas chamber killings
began. Auschwitz would remain in continuous use until
Russian army liberation of the camp on January 29, 1945.
During its operation at least 1.1 million prisoners died at
Auschwitz. Ninety percent were Jewish. Roughly 1 of
every 6 Jews killed in the Holocaust died there. Only 80
individuals are known to have ever escaped to recount their
stories. One of them was Witold Pilecki.
Witold Pilecki (1901-1948) was a Polish Army Captain who
helped found Poland’s underground resistance. He is the only
individual known to have volunteered to be imprisoned at the
infamous killing camp. On September 19, 1940, he presented
himself in a Warsaw camp round up. He arrived in Auschwitz
two days later as Tomasz Serafinski, number 4859. Pilecki’s
initial plan was to foment an uprising inside the camp. By 1941
he began informing England and the U.S. of the Nazi’s
extermination plan for Europe’s Jews and urging liberation.
Pilecki escaped the camp in 1943, when he realized that an
Allies liberation plan would not be forthcoming. On May 25th,
1948 Witold Pilecki was executed by the Polish Communist
regime for being a traitor.
Pilecki’s report was joined by those of Rudolph Vrba (19242006) and Alfred Wetzler (1918-1988), two Slovak Jews who
escaped Auschwitz on April 10, 1944. Their assignments in the
administrative, transport and mortuary sections of the camp
provided the most graphic and detailed accountings of the
killing factories that were Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One month later Czeslaw Mordowicz and Arnost Rosin combined their eyewitness testimony with the above survivors.
Together, these reports became known as the Auschwitz Protocols. Though its initial information was available as early as
1941, it was 1944 before any significant Allied acknowledgement. At that late date Roosevelt instated a War Refugee Board
that Ben Hecht had also been urging. Still the Allies resisted all calls to bomb the railways to Auschwitz. Still the State
Department ensured immigration quotas were retained and the number of Jewish refugees accepted remained well below the
quotas allowed.
Ani Ma’amin
Ani ma’amin
B’emuna shlema
B’viat hamasiach
Ani ma’amin.
V’af al pi sheyitmameha,
Im kol zeh, ani ma’amin.
Cantor Michael Shochet, Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church
and the Community Choir
‫אני מאמין‬
‫באמונה שלמה‬
‫בביאת המשיח‬
.‫אני מאמין‬
,‫ואף על פי שיתמהמה‬
.‫ אני מאמין‬,‫אם כל זה‬
I believe
with perfect faith
in the coming of the Messiah
I believe.
And although He might tarry,
Nevertheless, I believe.
*Adapted from one of the Thirteen Articles of Faith written by Rabbi Moses Maimonides.
This song was often sung by Holocaust victims on their way to the gas chambers.
8
The Responsibility of a Journalist
Rev. Melvin Jones, Antioch Baptist Church, Fairfax Station
No American newspaper was better positioned to highlight the Holocaust than the New York Times,
and no American newspaper so influenced the public discourse by its failure to do so.
March 2, 1944 was a typical news day… on page four, amid 13 other stories, appeared a five paragraph item…
The first two paragraphs described the (British) House of Commons’ decision to appropriate 50,000 pounds to help
fund the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees. Then came these paragraphs:
“During the discussion, S.S. Silverman, Labor member, read a report from the Jewish
National Committee operating somewhere in Poland saying:
‘Last month we still reckoned the number of Jews in the whole territory of Poland as from
250,000 to 300,000. In a few weeks no more than 50,000 of us will remain. In our last
moment before death the remnants of Polish Jewry appeal for help to the whole world.
May this, perhaps our last voice from the abyss, reach the ears of the whole world.
Without skipping a beat the story continued: “The Commons also approved an installment of 3,863 pounds to help
the International Red Cross open an office in Shanghai…”
The journalists of the New York Times did not respond to that anguished cry –
not the London correspondent who filed it, or the cable editor who read it, or the copy reader who edited it,…
(not) the night news editors who determined its placement,
nor the managing editor who signed off on it, or the publisher who had ultimate responsibility...
… no one from the Times said, “This is a catastrophe….
We can move this story from page four to page one.
We can give it a headline that befits the tragedy.
We can write a forceful editorial today and tomorrow and the next day...
We can help our readers understand the pain, the panic, the powerlessness of a people about to be exterminated.”
But no one at the Times (said) that, on that day or any of the 2,076 days of the European war.
And as a result, the “last voice from the abysss,’never reached the “ears of the whole world.”
From September 1939 through May 1945… the story of the Holocaust.. made the Times front page just 26 times.. only
six of those stories identified Jews as the primary victims. Never did page one stories appear back to back… not once
did the story lead the paper in the right hand column reserved for the day’s most important news – not even when the
concentration camps were liberated at the end of the war.
Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times: The Holocaust & America’s Most Important Newspaper, p2
Heal us Now
Music and English lyrics by Leon Sher
Cantors of the Northern Virginia Jewish Community
and the Community Choir
R'faeinu Adonai v'neirafei, hoshieinu v'nivasheiah, el karov l'chol korav, ach karov lireiav yisho
We pray for healing of the body, we pray for healing of the soul.
For strength of flesh and mind and spirit, we pray to once again be whole
Eil na, r'fa'na, Oh please heal us now, r'fuat hanefesh, u'r'fuat haguf, r'fuah, sh'leimah, heal us now
Hoshia et amecha, u'vareich et nachaletecha, u'r'eim, v'nas'eim ad ha'olam
Mi shebeirach avoteinu, mi shebeirach imoteinu, ana adonai hoshia na
We pray for healing our people, we pray for healing of the land, and peace of every race and nation
Every child, every woman, every man
Eil na, r'fa'na, Oh please heal us now, r'fuat hanefesh, u'r'fuat haguf, r'fuah, sh'leimah, heal us now
9
CANDLE LIGHTING CEREMONY
Candles of the Survivors
Candle One
Candle Two
Candle Three
Candle Four
Luisa Affricano
John Baer
Janine Bland
COL Frank Cohn
Maria Dworzecka
Stella Fettmann
Anne Herrmann
Michel Margosis
Lore Schneider
Irene Weiss
Edith Ziskind
Fifth Candle of the Next Generation
Dr. Rochelle Weinberger
In memory of Irving Weinberger
& in honor of Shari Weinberger
Rabbi Mina Goldsmith, Congregation Beth Emeth
In honor of David Gelbart
Helen Albert
In honor of Oscar Albert & Diana Albert
Irv Varkonyi,
In memory of Ignaz and Livia Varkonyi
Nelson Blitz,
In memory of David Blitz & in honor of Rose Blitz
Lloyd Wolf
Amy Friedman,
In memory of Meyer Wildfeuer
Olimpia Nowicka-Sulla,
In honor of Jan Nowicki & Sofia Pietrovna Schwartz
Michelle Rendelman
In memory of Jeannine Nataf
Marty Zelman,
In memory of David Zelman
and in honor of Toby Torens Zelman
Les Ziskind
In honor of and alongside Edith Ziskind
Amnon Salomon
The Pledge of Acceptance
All children of survivors are invited to rise and join in the reading of the pledge
We who are your sons and daughters belong to a generation in which every attempt was made for us to never exist.
We who represent your victory and your triumph over evil of unthinkable dimensions, accept the responsibility
to preserve and protect the legacy of the Holocaust.
We pledge to commemorate. We pledge to educate.
We pledge to forever remember.
We pledge to you, our mothers and fathers, who suffered in ways which words cannot describe,
that our commitment is an everlasting commitment for this generation
and for every generation to come.
We dedicate this pledge to our beloved grandmothers and grandfathers, who never lived to see us.
We dedicate this pledge to our aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, who are forever missing from our lives.
We dedicate this pledge to all the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were so brutally murdered,
but who will always be in our thoughts and in our hearts.
10
The Pledge of Continuation
All grandchildren of survivors are invited to rise and join in the reading of the pledge
We who are your grandchildren will carry the survivors’ legacy
to prove to ourselves and to others that we can carry our victory,
as well as to memorialize those loved ones
who perished in the Holocaust.
We pledge to always remember who we are, where we came from,
and also the traumas our grandparents endured and survived;
We pledge to educate people of other ethnic, religious, and cultural groups about our grandparents’ experiences;
We pledge to commit to use lessons of the Holocaust to support justice, tolerance, peace, kindness and compassion;
We pledge to accept survivors’ memories and to pass them on to future generations.
The Sixth Candle of Hope
Oren Marmorstein
Diplomatic Head of Regional Affairs, Embassy of Israel
Professor Allan Lichtman
Keynote Speaker, Co-Author, “FDR & the Jews”
Moment of Silence
followed by “Meditation” - an original composition created for the Northern Virginia Holocaust Observance
Composer: Adam Rothenberg, Doctor of Musical Arts (expected 2016), George Mason University
Rachel Bergman (flute), Associate Professor of Music, George Mason University
with “Repeating Tomorrows” performed by the JCCNV Dance Academy Company
Remember with Purpose
Poetry to Inspire the Choreography & Movement of “Repeating Tomorrows,” Both By Chris Dalen ©
From a nomadic nucleus, we become a scattered people.
Persecuted and put down wherever we retreat.
Focus on our proud uplifting culture, recalling our trials,
have made us stronger, more united in spirit.
El Maleh Rachamim
But remember with purpose.
Because our history of suffering has repeated itself before,
It can happen again.
Cantor Elisheva Dienstfrey, Agudas Achim Congregation, Alexandria
God full of mercy Who dwells high, grant proper rest
under the wings of the Divine Presence, in the great
heights of the holy and pure who, like the brilliance of
the heavens, shine to all the souls of the six million Jews
slain in the European Holocaust who were killed, and
slaughtered, and burned, and destroyed in sanctification
of God’s name, at the hands of the German murderers
and their assistants from other nations. Therefore may
the Master of mercy shelter them in the shelter of His
wings for eternity, and bind their souls in the bond of life.
The Lord is their inheritance; may the Garden of Eden
be their resting place and may they stand for their
destiny in the end of days. And let us say: Amen.
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El maleh rachamim shochen bameromim, hamtzey menuchah
nechonah al kanfey hashechinah, bema'alot kedoshim
utehorim kezohar harakiya mazhirim et kol haneshmot shel
sheshet milyoneh hayehudim, chalileh ha’Shoah ba’Eropa,
shenehergu, shenish’chetu, shenisrefu, veshanisfu al kidush
haShem, b’yadey hameratzchim haGermanim ve’ozrehem
misha’ar ha’amim. Lachen Ba’al harachamim yastirem b'seter k’nafav le'olamim, v’yitzror bitzror hachayim et
nishmotehem. Adonai hu nachalatam, b’Gan Eden t’hey
menuchatam, veya’emdu legoralam l’ketz hayamim, v'nomar
amen.
Irv Varkonyi & Cookie Hymer Blitz, JCRC of Greater Washington
The Kaddish is a Jewish prayer recited as part of our traditional mourning ritual. As we prepare to recite Kaddish we remember this
70th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary. The Holocaust came to Hungary late and with a hasty ferocity. From March - June
1944, for two long months, trains deported an estimated 12,000 Jews daily to an immediate death in Auschwitz. Of a vibrant
population of 860,000, less than one third remained alive after the war. Earlier tonight, I stood for my parents who escaped this
human tragedy. Now I stand on behalf of those who were caught unwittingly in the grasp of the Nazi vice and with the enthusiastic
support of their government, their neighbors and friends. We stand for our community and we stand for each individual lost.
Tonight we also remember beloved local survivor, poet, journalist and author Herman Taube, who died this March at age 96.
Herman’s writings and oral testimony throughout our community are a legacy to his heroism and compassion.
The Holocaust Mourners’ Kaddish
Rabbi Emeritus Marvin Bash, Rabbi Emeritus, Congregation Etz Hayim
Ve-yit-aleh, ve-yit-halal
Ohrdruf, Plashov, Papenburg, Ponary
‫ויתעלה ויתהלל‬
Yit-gadal
‫יתגדל‬
Auschwitz-Birkenau-Bun, Balanowka, Belson
‫שמה דקודשא בריך הוא‬
Shmei d’kudesha, b’rich Hu,
Prague, Radom, Ravensbruck, Rehmsdorf, Riga
Ve-yit-kadash
Belzec, Bialystok, Babi Yar
‫לעלא‬
Le-eyla
Sachensburg, Sachsenhausen, San Sabba, Shauliai
Shmei raba
Bochini, Bogdaovka, Buchenwald
‫מן כל ברכתא ושירתא‬
Min kol birchata v’shirata
Skarzysko, Kameinna, Sobibor, Stutthof
B’alma divra chir-utei
‫בעלמא די ברא כרעותה‬
Chelmno, Cracow, Dachau
‫תשבחתא ונחמתא‬
Tus-bechata ve-neche-mata
Thereisenstadt, Transnistria, Treblinka, Vilna
V’yamlich mal-chutei
Dakovo, Danica, Dora
Da-amiran b’alma
Viavara, Warsaw, Zemun, Zhitomir
and the scores of other camps.
V’imru Amen.
‫דאמירן בעלמא‬
.‫ואמרו אמן‬
Yehei Shlama raba min shmaya ‫יהא שלמא רבא מן שמיא‬
Ve-chayim aleinu
V’al kol Yisrael
V’imru Amen.
Oseh shalom bim-romav
Hu ya-aseh shalom
Aleinu ve-al kol Yisrael
V’imru Amen.
‫וחיים עלינו‬
‫ועל כל ישראל‬
.‫ואמרו אמן‬
‫עשה שלום במרומיו‬
‫הוא יעשה שלום‬
,‫עלינו ועל כל ישראל‬
‫ואמרו אמן‬
‫ויתקדש‬
‫שמה רבה‬
‫וימליך מלכותה‬
Be-chayei-chon, uv’yomei-chon
‫בחייכון וביומכון‬
Dumanovka, Ebensee, Edineti, Flossenburg
U’vchayei d’chol beit Yisrael ‫ובחיי דכל בית ישראל‬
Gross Rosen, Gunskirchen, Gurs
Ba-agala u’vizman kariv
‫בעגלא ובזמן קריב‬
Herzogenbusc, Iasi, Jadovno, Kaiserwald
V’imru Amen.
.‫ואמרו אמן‬
Ye-hei shmei raba m’vorach
‫יהא שמה רבא מבורך‬
L’olam ul’ol-mei alma-ya
.‫לעולם ולעלמי עלמיא‬
Yitbarach ve-yishtabach
‫יתברך וישתבח‬
Kamenets-Podolsk, Kishniev, Kovno, Klooga
Ve-yitpa’ar ve-yitromam
Lodz, Lubin, Lublin, Lvov, Lyons ‫ויתפאר ויתרומם‬
‫ויתנשא ויתהדר‬
Ve-yit-naseh, ve-yit-hadar
Majdanek, Mauthausen, Minsk, Natzweiler
Neuegamme
Moment of Silence
12
OSEH SHALOM
Community Choir
Written & Arranged by Jeff Klepper
,‫ הּוא י ַ ֲעשֶׂה שָׁלֹום‬,‫עשֶׂה שָׁלֹום ִּבמְרֹומָׁיו‬
:‫ ְו ִּאמְרּו ָאמֵן‬,‫ָׁעלֵינּו ְועַל כָׁל יִּש ְָׁראֵל‬
Oseh shalom bimromav Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu v'al kol Yisraeil, v'im'ru: Amein.
May the One who causes peace to reign in the high heavens, cause peace for us and for Israel, and let us say: Amen.
Rabbi Michael Ragozin, Congregation Sha’are Shalom, Leesburg
Rev John Manwell, Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun
The public mood, from apathy to anti-Semitism and bigotry
We the public, through our biases or our principles,
Can constrain or compel the options available to our political leaders
Do we call out loudly and put Sudan’s President Bashir on warning in Darfur?
Or do we watch in muted horror as one million are murdered in 100 days in Rwanda;
in Bosnia over 100,000 were killed;
182,000 Kurdish Iraqis were gassed;
in Cambodia 1,700,000 people were murdered.
Their killers sought to dehumanize and destroy them.
But if we remember them only as numbers,
We add new injustices to the torment they suffered.
How do we RE-humanize the murdered and assert the human dignity of each person lost?
We remember, even when we know commemorations like today are but a modest response
to tragedy of unfathomable proportions.
We act locally and advocate internationally. Combating hate and forging compassion,
Awakening the conscience of the silent bystander.
Rwanda’s National Unity and Reconciliation Commission creates truthful accounting,
national laws that fight discrimination and community initiatives that forge ties between ethnic groups.
A mostly peaceful transition in South Africa is aided by the Truth and Reconciliation Conference.
Seeds of Peace brings together youth from troubled regions in South Asia, the Middle East, and the Balkans.
And the press plays a pivotal role informing the public and enabling them to make judgments on the issues of
our time. “The American press is charged with bringing independent scrutiny to bear on the forces of power in
the society.”
American Society of News Editors “Statement of Principles,” www.asne.org
The war correspondent in harm’s way, the daily news editor, the editorial board and the publisher. Each has
their role. Do they report and compel our attention? Do we listen and choose to act?
What tragedies today are buried on page 4 or beyond the reach of a reporter’s beat?
In our time and with human compassion, do we hear the calls of the successors to Ben Hecht and Edward R.
Morrow and like a modern day Withold Pilecki, Verba or Wetzler, do we choose to respond?
13
Concluding Remarks
Jeff Dannick & Ron Halber
Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia
& JCRC of Greater Washington
Ha’Tikvah
Community Choir
Composed by N.H. Imber
‫כל עֹוד ַב ֵלבָׁב ְפנִּימָׁה‬
,‫נֶׂפֶׂש י ְהּודִּ י הֹומִּּיה‬
‫ּו ְל ַפאֲתֵ י ִּמז ְָׁרח קָׁדִּ ימָׁה‬
‫ַעי ִּן ְלצִּּיֹון צֹו ִּפּי ָׁה‬
Kol 'od balevav p'nimah
Nefesh Y’hudi homiyah
Ulfa'atei mizrach kadimah
Ayin l'tzion tzofiyah
,‫עֹוד לא ָאבְדָׁ ה תִּ ְקוָׁתֵ נּו‬
,‫הַתִּ ְקוָׁה בַת שְנֹות ַא ְל ַפי ִּם‬
‫ִַּארצֵנּו‬
ְ ‫ִּלהְיֹות עַם ָׁח ְפשִּי ב‬
.‫ש ָׁלי ִּם‬
ָׁ ‫א ֶֶׂׂרץ צִּיֹון וִּירּו‬
Od lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim,
Lihyot 'am chofshi b'artzeinu
Eretz Tziyon vi'rushalayim
So long as still within the inmost heart a Jewish spirit sings, so long as the eye looks eastward,
gazing toward Zion, our hope is not lost - that hope of two millennia, to be a free people in our land,
the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
PROGRAM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and THANK YOUs
Holocaust Programming & Youth Engagement
Since at least 1973 the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington has organized regional Holocaust
commemorations for the local community. With thanks to Joe Sandler (President), Ron Halber (Executive Director),
Cookie Hymer Blitz and Steven David Stone (Northern Virginia co-chairs), Judy Flippen-Anderson (Board Member),
Debbie Linick (DC & Virginia Director), Steve Adleberg (Educational Outreach Associate) and Sage Janulis (Intern). The JCRC
commitment to Holocaust education goes beyond the annual commemoration, with additional community programming and
co-sponsorship throughout the year, curriculum review and guidance, and political advocacy and engagement in public schools.
In 2014, the following Holocaust survivors agreed to speak at 11 Northern Virginia synagogues, public and parochial schools:
John Baer, Frank Cohn, Leonard Gordon, Ruth Kohn, Michel Margosis, Olimpia Nowicka (daughter of survivors), Irene Rehbock,
Irene Weiss, and Edith Ziskind. Together they reached over 1,400 teens thus far with their eyewitness testimony,
inspiring several class and individual art projects.
14
PROGRAM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and THANK YOUs (con’t)
Lead Partners
The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is a permanent partner with the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of
Greater Washington in hosting the Northern Virginia Holocaust Observance: Connie Pesachowitz (President), Jeff Dannick (Executive
Director), Sara Moore (Associate Executive Director), Marc Jacob (Assistant Executive Director & Technical Oversight), Laurie Albert
(Director of Community Engagement), Dan Kirsch (Cultural Arts Director), Irene Gavin (Fine Arts Coordinator), Chris Dalen (JCCNV
Dance Academy Director), Ido Rakovsky (JCCNV-JAFI Community Shaliach), and Ken Wilson (Technical Director) each assisted with
development of the program. Rabbi Michael Ragozin of Congregation Sha’are Shalom oversaw the commemoration and Cantor
Jason Kaufman of Beth El Hebrew Congregation directed the community choir. Informational booths were provided by Rabbi Marvin
Bash on behalf of Yad Vashem, Ellen Blalock & Rebecca Porter on the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) support for local
Holocaust survivors, Bruce Gordon on the “Yellow Candle Project” on behalf of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs .
Art Exhibits
Irene Gavin (JCCNV Fine Art Director) arranged the exhibit of five local artists and photojournalists in, “On Deaf Ears.” Thank you
Hector Emanuel, Michelle Frankfurter, Yonina Blech-Hermoni, Katherine Janus Kahn and Lloyd Wolf. Additional thanks to Ido
Rakovsky (JCCNV-JAFI Community Shaliach - Representative from Israel) for organizing the “Israel & the Holocaust” exhibit.
The Keynote Address
In a seminar preceding the observance, American University History Department Distinguished Professor Allan Lichtman, co-author of
“FDR & the Jews,” discussed American media coverage and public sentiment during and preceding the Holocaust years.
“Unto Every Person There is a Name”
The Uriah P Levy Chapter of B’nai B’rith Chesapeake Bay Region, in conjunction with the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Israel, sponsors “Unto Every Person There is a Name.” This public name-reading commemorates children and adults who perished in
the Holocaust, restoring some dignity to those who were stripped of their identities and robbed of their lives. We remember each year at
this time the millions of individuals lost to the Jewish people by reading as many names as possible.
Led by Barbara Brenman, with thanks to Ira Bartfield, Jerry Jacobs, and Myra Roney for their efforts.
Community Choir
Directed by Cantor Jason Kaufman, Beth El Hebrew Congregation of Alexandria
Piano Accompanist: Eric Schnobrick, Beth El Hebrew Congregation. Flute Composition: Professor Rachel Bergman, George
Mason University Department of Music, Agudas Achim Congregation: Cantor Elisheva Dienstfrey. Beth El Hebrew Congregation:
Elaine Block, Jenny Genser, Paige Kaufman, Paul Peckar, Joanne Rohodes, Laura Tieger-Salisbury, David Weinreb.
Congregation Adat Reyim: Mitch Bassman (Director), Robin Gross, Shelley Kahn, Bill Korth, Frannie Nadel, Tara Nadel,
Valerie Schwartz, Robbi Watnik. Mormon Choir of Washington DC: Dave Hardin (Associate Director), Megan Amhammari, Laura
Campbell, Torrey Frank, Dennis Freeman, Sierra Frischknecht, Katie Gustafson, Steve Halbert, Brett Hardy, Judy Hinds, Marci Ladd,
David Neville, Amanda Roberts, Kathy Shurtleff, Helen Smith, Brian Stout, Li Tang, Len Watson, Don Weber, Mike Whelan, Rick
Whittenberger. Olam Tikvah Chorale: Carol Boyd Leon (Director), Ruth Abramovitch, Debbie Dubin Kritzer, Tamra Gordon, Kathryn
James, Natalie Levine, John McPeek, Sharon Pearl, Fred Singer, Joan Singer, Jennifer Weinstock. Shoreshim: Debra Steppel,
Madeleine Steppel Temple B’nai Shalom: Mark Leckert, Temple Rodef Shalom: Cantor Michael Shochet, Rachael Ellis,
Nancy Lawrence, Saul Pilchen, Mike Rubin, Laura Weil.
Performance Artists
Choreographed and directed by Chris Dalen, JCCNV Dance Academy Director. Performed by: Brigid Cryan, Elli Cryan,
Elana Goldenkoff, Hannah Golub, Faith Hemmerdinger, Amanda Kamen, Hannah Lansbury, Mia Rivelis,
Juliana Shumack, Kayley Snyder, Lily Spiro, Tomas Weinberger.
Thank You!
Volunteers for this program included: Sandy Acosta, Sheila Budoff, Karen Feldman, Judy Flippen-Anderson,
Marcie Goldstein, Barbara Holleb, Jennifer Kang, Madeline Levy, Marielle Levy, Rebecca Linick, Sarah Rubin, Martin Siegel,
Rebecca Soulen, Annie Stout, Bebe Whitley, Alan Winter, and Sandra Winter.
Marcy Spiro and Bruce Waxman escorted Holocaust survivors to speaking engagements.
15
Join JCRC and the JCCNV on Sunday, April 19, 2015:
Northern Virginia’s 2015 Holocaust Observance
The Psychology of Scapegoating
The following non-profits and houses of worship provided support for
the 2014 Northern Virginia Holocaust Observance:
Non-Profits: American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, ARISE Campus Ministries at George Mason University,
Art & Remembrance, Centreville Immigration Forum, Christian Law Institute, Fairfax Office of Human Rights & Equity,
Fairfax Faith Communities in Action, Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park, George Mason University Hillel and Music Department,
Gesher Jewish Day School, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Hadassh, Jewish Council for the Aging, Jewish Historic Society of Greater
Washington, Jewish Social Service Agency, Jewish War Veterans, National Council of Jewish Women, United Hindu Jain Association,
Uriah P Levy Lodge B’nai B’rith Chesapeake Bay Region, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Virginia Holocaust Museum,
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Yad Vashem
Congregations: Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church, Agudas Achim, All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center,
Annandale Stake of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Antioch Baptist Church, Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation,
Beth El Hebrew Congregation, Congregation Beth Emeth, Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Fairfax, Congregation Adat Reyim,
Congregation Etz Hayim, Congregation Olam Tikvah, Fauquier Jewish Congregation, Fort Belvoir Jewish Military Congregation,
Kol Ami: Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Congregation, Ner Shalom, Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, Sha’are Shalom,
Shoreshim, St Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, Temple Beth Torah, Temple B’nai Shalom, Temple Rodef Shalom, Unitarian Universalist Church
of Arlington, Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, Unitarian Universalists of Sterling.