BGU Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on Campus
April 19, 2012
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By Faye Bittker, Director, BGU Department of Publications and Media Relations
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah as it is called in Israel, was marked this morning on BGU’s Marcus Family Campus in a moving ceremony organized by the dean of students and the Student Association.
At the heart of the ceremony was the lighting of six torches to mark the six million who perished.
Each torch was lit by a BGU student or staff member who told his or her own personal connection to the Holocaust.
These important stories were presented in a way that honored those who have died, while celebrating hope for the future.
Head of the Student Union Uri Keidar read a passage from his father’s recently published memoirs that told about his experiences as a six-year-old boy on the run – not remembering every experience, just the lasting feeling of fear that comes when you spend your days in absolute silence hoping to escape detection.
BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi spoke beautifully about trying to understand the horrors of the past while focusing on building for the future.
The University choir and the Zlotowski Dance Troupe also performed.
Words cannot describe the experience of being at such a ceremony, with thousands of students, staff and faculty, where not one phone rings and everyone joins in the singing of “HaTikvah,” Israel’s national anthem.
That’s one of the benefits of being a part of a university with such a strong sense of community.
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