A communitywide observance of Yom Hashoah-Holocaust Remembrance Day is planned for April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Organized by the Ridgefield Clergy Association, the memorial service will include prayers, readings and songs related to the Holocaust. This is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps.
“As a student of Professor Elie Wiesel, I’ve learned we must remember and speak truth to power whenever there is injustice. The lessons from the Holocaust are still needed today, as a troubling rise anti-Semitism is brewing in Europe, the Middle East, as well as on college campuses in this country. I am heartened to share in this remembrance in my community,” Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray said.
“We are linked together by our common humanity. In our decisions to work together and in our decisions not to work together, we create the world in which we live. I am so glad that Rabbi David accepted my invitation to hold this extremely important service for the Jewish people here at St. Stephen’s. And I am grateful to the Ridgefield Clergy Association for sponsoring it. It is my hope that the community will find in this service the opportunity to honor those who endured suffering and respect those who died during the Holocaust. I pray that God will use our remembering to strengthen our bonds of caring for one another. Under Rabbi David and Cantor Deborah’s leadership, we will all learn how to remember,” said the Rev. Whitney Altopp, rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
Rabbi David L. Reiner said, “I am very appreciative of Rev. Altopp (and the Ridgefield Clergy Association) for her interest and initiative in hosting a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) observance for the entire Ridgefield community.
“As much as the Holocaust impacted the Jewish community, we must also recognize that millions of non-Jews were victims of Nazi murderous ideology and rage. Recalling the Shoah (Holocaust) must be more than an exclusively Jewish practice; resolving to end hatred and taking up the call of Never Again must be shared by all peoples in every community.
“In coming together as a community to observe Holocaust Memorial Day, we recall hatred in the past and also address the hatreds that persist in our own age and our own community, in the forms of anti-Semitism, bullying and xenophobia.”