Sharing and Remembrance

On Thursday, May 2, Hackley students who participated in the recent Casten Trip to Israel and Palestine hosted a lunchtime panel conversation about their experience. They also shared impressions of their visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in recognition of Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was observed on the same day.
Yom HaShoah occurs on the 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew Calendar, which this year corresponded to Thursday, May 2. Shoah, which means catastrophe or utter destruction in Hebrew, refers to the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during World War II. This day is a memorial day for those who died in the Shoah, and it is observed on this date to mark the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, when Jewish resistance fighters defied the Nazis to fight for their freedom and dignity.

The Shoah (also known as the Holocaust, from a Greek word meaning "sacrifice by fire,") was initiated by the members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, which seized power in Germany in 1933.
Eventually, over six million Jews -- two thirds of the European Jewish population -- perished in the death camps. In addition, the Nazis killed millions of others, including Roma and Slavs, political and religious dissidents, the handicapped, and gays and lesbians.

Many Jews commemorate Yom HaShoah through worship, music, listening to stories from survivors and by lighting yellow candles in order to honor the memory of the millions of victims of racism, hatred and antisemitism.
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