Remembrance events to focus on Holocaust survivors
NSW commemorations to highlight Holocaust survivors who helped shape Australia’s Jewish community.
This year’s Yom Hashoah remembrance events will focus on the Holocaust survivors who came to Australia and rebuilt their lives under the theme ‘Survivors in Australia: Rebuilding Lives’.
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) will host annual commemorations on April 13 and 14, exploring how Holocaust survivors arrived in Australia with little more than hope and determination, then rebuilt their lives, raised families and helped shape the vibrant Australian Jewish community.
For the first time since 2022, there will be a standalone North Shore commemoration, with all synagogues on the North Shore involved in planning.
“This year’s Yom Hashoah theme reflects not only the endurance of survivors, but their remarkable capacity to restore what was destroyed,” said Shoah Remembrance Committee chair at the NSW JBD Dane Stern.
“Having lost families, homes and the fabric of their pre-war lives, survivors who came to Australia transformed profound loss into lives of resilience and contribution. This year’s commemorations will explore the story of survivor migration to Australia, the deep appreciation survivors had for Australia as a land of freedom, and the enormous contribution survivors made to Australian life.”
The events will feature archival footage of Jewish refugees arriving in Australia, in-person testimony by Holocaust survivor Ernie Friedlander, candle lighting by six Holocaust survivors, memorial prayers and a performance of survivor Tommy Tycho’s iconic arrangement of Advance Australia Fair.
The Eastern Suburbs commemoration will include tributes to Syd Einfeld and Frank Lowy’s contributions to Australia, while each North Shore synagogue has nominated a survivor to light candles.
A memorial service and reading of names will take place at the Martyrs’ Memorial at Rookwood Cemetery.
Youth HEAR will also host its annual Yom Hashoah commemoration on April 12. This year’s event, Lo Levad – You Are Not Alone, reflects on what it means to wrap yourself in community in the aftermath of unimaginable loss, honouring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and recognising the resilience of survivors and their descendants.
To register for the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies’ events, visit nswjbd.org.au/yomhashoah2026. To register for the Youth HEAR event, visit youthhear.org.au/upcoming-events.