In connection with the nationwide theme of the 2014 Holocaust Remembrance Week, this year’s commemoration at Temple Beth Israel will focus on the American response to Nazi evil before, during and after WWII, as well as America’s continuing role in combating genocide. The event will take place this Sunday afternoon, April 27, at 4 p.m. at the synagogue at 3033 N. Towne Ave., Pomona.

The centerpiece of the program will be the screening of the short film Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses, produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. This film and the other aspects of the event will address two seminal events in Holocaust history: the refugee crisis in the spring of 1939 and the deportation of Hungarian Jews five years later. 

“Remembering the Holocaust obligates us not only to memorialize those who were killed,” a statement from the USHMM says, “but also to recognize the importance of taking action in the face of hatred and genocide.”

Cantor Richard Schwartz of Temple Beth David in Temple City, California will be the featured musical artist. In keeping with the theme of the day, Mr. Schwartz will share musical compositions created in America as a response to the dark events in wartime Europe. The musical program will include additional contributions from Cantor Paul Buch, pianist Dr. Randy Polevoi and flautist Dana Sundene. 

There will also be remarks by Rabbi Jonathan Kupetz and contributions from other members of the TBI community, including author and poet R. Gabriele Silten, a child survivor of the internment camp Terezin (Theresianstadt).

Memorial candles will be lit to remember the six million Jewish victims of the “Shoah” (Hebrew for Holocaust) and the six million other victims of Nazi atrocities. Candles will also be available for participants to light at their homes.

For further information, contact the Temple Beth office at (909) 626-1277 or tbi@tbipomona.org.