An overflow crowd of 400-plus filled the Memphis Jewish Community Center's Belz Social Hall for a moving and meaningful Yom HaShoah program. Our speaker, Dr. Mark Wygoda, presented the compelling story of his fater, Hermann Wygoda, an Italian partisan commander. Our community's cantors performed a beautiful rendition of VeHi She'Amda and Cantor Aryeh Samberg chanted an incredibly moving and powerful El Maleh Rachamim. Paula Kelman, Miriam Loterstein, Erika Sigel, Ella Silber, Freida Weinreich, and Gertrude Schlanger lit the memorial candles; Sam Weinreich sang the Partisan Song, and Harry Loterstein recited the Tehillim and Kaddish. Maddie Tavin, an 11th grader at the Goldie Margolin School for Girls, read her First Place winning essay. Temple Israel Senior Rabbi Micah Greenstein closed the program with moving and eloquent remarks. The legacy of our community's Holocaust survivors was manifest in the Third and Fourth Generation Choir. Special thanks go to CRC's Holocaust Memorial Committee and chair, Dr. Robert H. Gold, who coordinated the program.

Prior to the program, a reception with Dr. Wygoda was held for Holocaust survivors, Second Generation, and the winners of Memphis Jewish Federation's Holocaust art, poetry, and essay contests. The top three winners in each category were awarded Borders gift cards sponsored by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. You can read the first place essay and poem, and view the first place winning artwork, on the CRC page of our website or by clicking here.