Mayor Justin Wilson, left, presents a proclamation to Joyce Gordon recognizing her leadership on the Days of Remembrance Planning Committee.
“We have a legacy that is bound together and linked in historical oppression, a shared commitment to ensure that the genocide that occurred to 6 million Jewish people and to others does not occur again,” said Beulah Baptist Church senior pastor Reverend Professor Quardricos Bernard Driskell in opening the ceremony on behalf of the faith community. “We have a commitment to ensure that the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and in this world stops.”
During the ceremony, Mayor Justin Wilson and City Council members Sarah Bagley and Kirk McPike lit a candelabrum that was donated to the city by Holocaust survivor Charlene Schiff and her husband, Ed. The lighting of six candles represented the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust.
The 54-inch high, solid brass candelabrum was donated in memory of Schiff’s parents and sister, and others who perished in the Holocaust.
“Charlene was the bravest woman I've ever met,” said Joan Edelman, a longtime friend of Schiff. “She never showed her bitterness about the horrors she went through. She was a role model for everybody.”
Robbie Schaefer, the son of a Holocaust survivor and guitarist and songwriter for the indie folk band Eddie From Ohio, was the featured speaker at the ceremony which was part of the weeklong commemoration of the National Days of Remembrance that runs through April 24.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum leads the nation in the weeklong Days of Remembrance commemoration, in accordance with Congressional mandate.
“We have a shared commitment to call out anti-Semitism, racism and any injustice that violates the humanity of all of God's children,” Driskell said. “If together we delve down in this commitment, then one day all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty all of God's people will one day be free at last.’”