Melbourne’s Holocaust Centre and Maccabi remember Yom HaShoah
To mark Yom HaShoah in 2017, the Jewish Holocaust Centre is partnering with Maccabi Victoria to remember victims of the Holocaust.
Over the weekend of 22/23 April 2017 Maccabi sports clubs throughout Melbourne will take a moment before games to remember victims of the Holocaust.
The JHC is Australia’s pre-eminent Holocaust museum and education institution and Maccabi Victoria is the roof body for Jewish sport in Victoria.
This program is aimed across the community and focusing on the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Melbourne’s large Holocaust survivor community whose lives were torn apart by events in Nazi-occupied Europe. Just like the young members of Maccabi today, these survivors, and their family and friends who perished, were also avid sportsmen and women who participated in a wide range of sporting activities. Most were children at the time – 1.5 million children were murdered during the Holocaust.
Our message is simple: The only thing that separates them from you is time…..they were #justlikeyou.
The program particularly provides the younger generation with an opportunity to make a meaningful gesture of remembrance of the Holocaust while contemporaneously creating awareness with all older generations spanning across, and external to, Melbourne’s Jewish community.
This brief pause in procedures is important because:
- Remembering the Holocaust, reminds us of the dangers of racism and prejudice because of the devastation they can cause.
- When we commemorate the Holocaust it reminds us to treat each other fairly regardless of our differences. These differences may be in our physical appearance, our religious beliefs or the country from which our family originated.
- Commemorating the Holocaust reminds us to protect our tolerant and multicultural way of life and stand up against injustice for all people
As David Cohen, JHC Vice-president, descendant of Holocaust survivors, Maccabi sportsman and father to the next generation of Maccabi participants stated:
“With diminishing numbers of Holocaust survivors available to educate future generations (over 23,000 Victorian school children attend the JHC education program annually) it is critical that the devastation be remembered and life lessons learned and taught. We are delighted to be partnering with Maccabi in spreading the messaging #justlikeyou.”
Brian Swersky, President of Maccabi Victoria has said “We believe that this partnership is important and the wonderful educators at JHC have worked closely with our clubs to ensure an age appropriate memorial”
