Beth El – The Beaches Synagogue to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day, ‘Yom HaShoah’

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Beth El – The Beaches Synagogue will honor the memory of six million Jews who lost their lives during World War II on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Sunday, April 19.

 

The 3-5 p.m. memorial will be open to the public at the synagogue, located at 288 Roscoe Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach.

 

“This annual memorial commemorates not only the Jews enslaved in numerous concentration camps during the war, but the many heroes that fought to save them”, Sherill Herzfeld, Beth El vice president said. “While Yom HaShoah is important each year, it is becoming more and more necessary to honor this memory since survivors are few and far between.” Most survivors of the camps have passed on and the youngest survivors, those born within the camps, are 75 years of age and older.

Beth El’s program will feature a documentary titled, “Sheer Luck - A Story of Survival.” The film tells the story of the life of Herzfeld’s father, Jack Glucksman, from pre-war Poland to the years he spent in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz, the Death March, and his survival in the Baltic Sea after the bombing and sinking of the Cap Arcona, the ship that was carrying him to safety.

“As a child, my father never spoke of his experiences,” Herzfeld said. “We knew he was in the concentration camps because of the tattooed numbers on his arm. It wasn’t until we were young adults that he began speaking about the atrocities publicly.”

Candles will be lit during the memorial, and names of loved ones who are no longer living will be read aloud.

For more information, call Beth El at (904) 273-9100.