One People, One Destiny: A ceremony in Montreal commemorates Yom Hashoah tonight

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Yom HaShoah, the commemoration of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and Jewish resistance during that period, begins Sunday night. In Montreal, it will be commemorated at the Montreal Holocaust Museum with an event starting at 7 p.m.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, as the event is colloquially known in English, takes on additional symbolism as the first Yom HaShoah since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, kidnapping nearly 250 people and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel says the militants are still holding about 100 people hostage and that more than 30 others are at large.

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As the Israel-Hamas war enters its seventh month, the death toll exceeds 34,500, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and anti-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests continue on college campuses across North America, including Montreal. and Europe, so this year's Yom HaShoah comes at a time of particular tension for Jews.

“This commemoration is very special,” said Daniel Amar, director of the Montreal Holocaust Museum. “The tragic event of October 7 is the biggest massacre against the Jews of our century.

“As anti-Semitism rises again, commemoration is not only about honoring the past, but also about showing our unity and solidarity against hatred. This is our struggle.”

First observed in Israel in 1951 and enacted into law a decade later, Yom HaShoah is observed by many Jewish communities around the world as a primary day of Holocaust remembrance. International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005, is celebrated on January 27.

A recent survey of 1,100 Canadian respondents found that their knowledge of the Holocaust was limited. Fifteen percent of adults and 20 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds surveyed either had never heard of the Holocaust or weren't sure if they had. Almost half of the respondents could not name even one concentration camp or ghetto or Jewish ghetto.

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The theme of this year's Yom Hashoah event in Montreal is One Man, One Destiny. The 17-minute video to be screened features excerpts from seven Auschwitz survivors who gave oral testimony to the Montreal Holocaust Museum over the years. They came from Poland, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

The testimonies remind us of the “importance of organized horror, systematic extermination and the silence of peoples,” the organizers of the event say.

Many people think that the Holocaust only affected Jews of Ashkenazi descent, but Sephardic Jews were also affected, said Esther Andor, the museum's coordinator of oral history and remembrance.

The seven survivors light a memorial candle.

Although the community of survivors is dwindling, “we are still interviewing and looking for survivors and child survivors,” Andor said.

The purpose of the commemoration is to “reaffirm our commitment to remember the victims, honor the survivors and reflect on the lessons of the Holocaust,” organizers said.

The event also highlights the museum's role in “educating new generations about the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance that threaten our social cohesion and democratic values.”

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The rise in violence in the Middle East has led to a corresponding rise in anti-Semitism in Canada generally and around the world, according to a federal government fact sheet on anti-Semitism.

Members of Parliament Anna Gainey, Anthony Housefather, Alexandra Mendes and Pablo Rodriguez are among those attending. Pascal Dery, Quebec's minister of higher education, is expected to attend, as well as MNAs Elisabeth Prass, Michel Setlakwe and Christopher Skeete.

Also the mayors of Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Cote-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Outremont and Ville-Saint-Laurent, some municipal councilors, Belgian, German, Hungarian, Israeli and United Mayors pending. Consuls General of States, as well as Honorary Consuls of Austria and the Netherlands.

The ceremony will take place at the Montreal Holocaust Museum, 5151 rue Côte-Ste-Catherine, organized in partnership with the Federation CJA, the Segal Center for the Arts and the Communauté Sépharade Unifiée du Quebec. Visitors are asked to arrive by 6:00 p.m., as people must pass through a metal detector at the entrance.

A Yom HaShoach commemoration will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the National Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa. You can stream it live here.

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