Community Yom Hashoah Observance with UD choir, keynote by local survivor

Circle of Freedom is the theme of the Dayton Area Yom Hashoah Observance: A Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, on Thursday, April 19 at 7 p.m. at Beth Abraham Synagogue, 305 Sugar Camp Circle in Oakwood.

The speaker for this year’s program is Holocaust survivor Henry Guggenheimer. At age 12 in 1940, he and his widowed mother escaped Nazi Germany. They traveled through Eastern Europe and ultimately by freighter from Japan to San Francisco. Guggenheimer is a docent for Prejudice and Memory, A Holocaust Exhibit, on permanent display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

The observance will include works performed by the University of Dayton World Music Choir, led by Sharon Davis Gratto, chair of the university’s department of music.

During the evening, the student winners of the annual Holocaust Writing Contest and Max May Memorial Holocaust Art Contest will be recognized. Works from the art contest will be on display beginning at 6 p.m.

The Dayton Area Yom Hashoah Observance is sponsored by the Yom Hashoah Committee, a joint project of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s Jewish Community Relations Council and the Holocaust Committee. For more information, contact Jodi Phares at the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton at JPhares@jfgd.net.

Sinclair Holocaust Remembrance

With the theme Hidden Children: Surviving the Holocaust, survivor John Koenigsberg of Columbus will give the keynote speech for Sinclair Community College’s 2012 Holocaust Remembrance programs.

On Tuesday, April 24 at 12:30 p.m., Koenigsberg will discuss his experiences as a young boy during the Holocaust, in Sinclair’s Sifferlen Center, Building 14.

Born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1937, Koenigsberg will lead a presentation about the fate of Holland’s Jews and his family’s experience in hiding with a Catholic family during the last few years of World War II. The speech is open to the public.

On Monday, April 30 from 4-7 p.m., Sinclair will host Bullying and Holocaust Education, a workshop for teachers and education majors, in the Sinclair Center, Building 12. Holocaust Education Committee Chair Renate Frydman, bullying expert Dr. Anna Bucy, and representatives from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office will present breakout sessions.

To register, e-mail thomas.martin6057@sinclair.edu.

During May, works from the Max May Memorial Holocaust Art Contest will be on display in the Sinclair Library.