A poignant Yom Hashoah
The theme for this year’s communal commemoration was “The Holocaust in Hungary” to mark 80 years since the Nazi invasion of Hungary.
A series of poignant Yom Hashoah events were held on Sunday, with NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip describing this year’s commemoration as “perhaps the most relevant and disturbing Yom Hashoah yet”.
Speaking to a packed auditorium at Moriah College, Ossip said: “Today we are marking the wholesale destruction and torture of European Jews, all in the aftermath of the murder and torture of more than 1200 Jews in Israel and the ongoing captivity of 132 men, women and children, including survivors of the Shoah.
“We are asking ourselves questions which generations before have had to confront about the nature of Jewish identity, the persistence of our persecution, the safety and longevity of our communities.”
The theme for this year’s communal commemoration was “The Holocaust in Hungary” to mark 80 years since the Nazi invasion of Hungary.
A moving segment honoured the lives and experiences of three Hungarian Holocaust survivors in their late 90s: Barbara Grunstein, Joseph Symon and Lilly Wolf, who survived a death march and was saved by Raoul Wallenberg.
The featured speaker was Jan Anger, son of Swedish diplomat and Righteous Among the Nations Per Anger. Per Anger originated the idea of issuing Swedish documents to protect Hungarian Jews and worked closely with Raoul Wallenberg to save Jews in Budapest from deportation to death camps.
Earlier on Sunday, 800 people attended Youth HEAR’s Yom Hashoah commemoration, ‘L’Dor V’Dor: From Generation to Generation’.
Also on Sunday, high above Central Synagogue’s courtyard, a drone-mounted camera captured a striking image of more than 100 people forming a giant yellow ribbon, for this year’s ‘Remember the Yom’ Holocaust awareness social media campaign, supported by 10 Sydney-based Jewish organisations.
Founder Robyn Pakula said the theme for 2024 was to honour the estimated 250,000 people with disability who were murdered in the Holocaust and also to remember Ruth Peretz – an Israeli teen with cerebral palsy – who was killed, with her father Erick, by Hamas terrorists on October 7 at the Nova festival.
A highlight of the event was a moving address by Milla Wolman, who said, “Recent events are a stark reminder that ‘never again’ can happen again.
“Ruth Peretz was the same age as me, with the same disability and same passion for music. She was full of joy and light … today, we honour you, Ruth.”
The annual Reading of the Names was also held at Rookwood on Sunday.
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