Yom HaShoah Commemoration

Please join us for San Francisco’s community-wide Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemoration and day of learning. Together we will honor the lives lost in the Holocaust and ensure that the lessons of history are never forgotten.

The Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center and the JCCSF present this gathering with community partners from across the Bay Area, in person for the first time since 2019. Come together to learn, honor and remember with local educators, artists, community activists, spiritual care providers and civic leaders.

A keynote presentation with a commemoration, yizkor service and candle-lighting ceremony will be held at 5:00 pm, followed by a reception with light refreshments and live music. Stop by earlier in the day to take part in some or all of the small-group sessions and reflection opportunities. Full schedule below.

On view all day: Beauty and Terror Art Exhibition, by local artist Robin Bernstein with hands-on activity guided by the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

SCHEDULE

1:00 – 4:00 pm: Participate in small-group workshops, community conversations, and private reflection.

1:00 – 4:00 pm Ongoing: Reading of the Names & Memorial Space
Drop in to the Room of Names to bear witness and remember loved ones who perished in the Holocaust and those who have passed in recent years. Submit your family names here.

1:00 – 2:00 pm: The Holocaust & Antisemitism: A Personal Story
Authors Ron Kaufman and Terence Clarke discuss their book M.M. Diaries, in conversation with the JCCSF’s Rabbi Batshir Torchio.

1:00 – 2:00 pm: Grief Stones: A Somatic and Tactile Meditation for Holding and Releasing Grief 
This workshop with artist Meirav Ong is an invitation to reconnect to our bodies, our ancestors and the earth, through guided vocal meditations and an active clay practice of creating Grief Stones. No voice or clay experience required.

2:30 – 3:45 pm: What Can We Do About Antisemitism?
Panel discussion featuring:

• Tye Gregory, Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), Bay Area
• Oleg Ivanov, PhD, Assistant Director, American Jewish Committee San Francisco
• Marc Levine, Regional Director, Anti-Defamation League, Central Pacific Region
• Morgan Blum Schneider, Director, JFCS Holocaust Center

3:30 – 4:30 pm: How Much Suffering is Enough?
As the son of four Holocaust survivors, two from Europe and two from Tunisia and the Head of School at the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School, Adam Eilath, will discuss how pain, trauma, and memory travel across cultures and generations. Having survived a terrorist attack with his daughter in Tunisia in 2023, he will reflect on the shadow of the Holocaust on current events and on the psyche of Jews. Presented by JIMENA.

4:00 – 4:30 pm: Reading of the Names
With San Francisco dignitaries and California elected officials.

5:00 – 6:15 pm: Commemoration, Keynote, Yizkor Service & Candle-lighting Ceremony

• Keynote Presentation: Our Schools – The Fight for the Hearts & Minds of Children. An insightful discussion on actionable strategies to combat antisemitism in our communities and beyond featuring Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, State of California’s Department of Education, in conversation with Dr. Anita Friedman, Executive Director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
• Music provided by the Brandeis School of San Francisco Middle School Chorus.

6:15 – 7:00 pm: Community Reception
Connect with community over light refreshments and live music provided by The Noa Levy Trio. This trio offers Jewish heritage music, singing in multiple languages and featuring songs from the Israeli, Ladino, Yiddish and Mizrachi musical cannons.

Community Partners:

American Jewish Committee (AJC) San Francisco, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Central Pacific Region, Brandeis SF, Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Israeli American Council (IAC), Jewish Community Library, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Bay Area, Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF), JIMENA, New Lehrhaus, SF Hillel, San Francisco Interfaith Council.

Participating Congregations:

Congregation Adath Israel, Congregation Am Tikvah, Congregation Anshey Sfard, Congregation Beth Sholom, Congregation Chevra Thilim, Congregation Emanu-El, Congregation Ner Tamid, Congregation Sherith Israel, Sha’ar Zahav.

This program is proudly supported by the Israel Engagement Fund: A JCC Association of North America Program Accelerator and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.