Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day

Please join us for San Francisco’s community-wide Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day community-wide morning concert and evening Holocaust commemoration. Together we will honor survivors and those who perished in the Holocaust and carry forward the lessons of history.

The Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center and the JCCSF, in partnership with community organizations across the Bay Area, invite you to gather in remembrance. Join Holocaust survivors, artists, musicians, spiritual care providers and civic leaders as we learn, honor and reflect together.

Join us in the morning for Songs of Truth, a powerful live concert by the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in partnership with the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

In the evening, a keynote presentation will be followed by a commemoration with Yizkor service and candle-lighting ceremony at 6:00 pm. The evening will conclude with a reception, light refreshments and live music. Full schedule below.

SCHEDULE

10:30 – 11:30 am: Songs of Truth: A Live Music and Storytelling Event
A powerful tribute to the talent and resilience of Jewish composers who created music while imprisoned during the Holocaust. Songs of Truth weaves music and multimedia storytelling into an unforgettable performance by student musicians alongside the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.

Created by the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and  Citizen Film.

Student groups are invited to join at no cost. Refreshments and an art-based reflection are included for all students. To reserve a spot for your school, please email Hannah Pozen, Public Programs Coordinator, at hpozen@jccsf.org.

Noon – 6:00 pm: Hall of Remembrance
We invite you to step into the Hall of Remembrance, a sacred space for reflection to commemorate the six million Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust. Join us at 5:00 pm for an in-person reading of names, honoring their memory together.

4:00 – 5:00 pm: A Great Big Secret: Bringing A Survivor’s Story to Light
Be among the first to experience A Great Big Secret, a powerful short film by award-winning filmmaker Yoav Potash, recently premiered at the San Diego and New York Jewish Film Festivals. Through interviews, archival footage, and animation, the film reveals Holocaust survivor Anita Magnus Frank’s story as a hidden child in the Netherlands – a story kept untold for decades. Join us for the screening, followed by a live Q&A with Anita herself.

5:00 – 5:45 pm: Reading of the Names
Join San Francisco dignitaries, California elected officials and community partners for the Reading of the Names ceremony, honoring lives lost in the Holocaust. To include your family members in this tribute, please submit your family names for the Reading of the Names ceremony.

6:00 – 7:15 pm: Commemoration, Keynote Conversation, Yizkor Service & Candle-lighting Ceremony

• Survivors and Liberators Speak: REMEMBER THIS a short film screening.
• Keynote Presentation: The Path Forward – a conversation with Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis and Dr. Anita Friedman, JFCS Executive Director.
• Music by Songs of Truth featuring compositions created by musicians imprisoned during the Holocaust – performed by the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, in collaboration with Citizen Film.
• Yizkor Service and Candle-lighting Ceremony with Bay Area clergy.

7:15 – 8:00 pm: Community Reception
Connect with community over light refreshments and live music.

Join Naomi Stein, Jewish ethnobotanist, as she offers a deep exploration of the berries and plants that nourished our ancestors before, during and after the Holocaust. Drop in for a sweet taste or stick around to discover rich insights into wellness as community resilience, cultural memory and the healing power of our natural world.

7:30 – 9:00 pm: Descendants Dinner
Holocaust survivors and descendants are invited to join us for our 2nd Annual Descendants Dinner, a gathering for survivors, 2G and 3G folks to share family stories over dinner. For more information, please email holocaustcenter@jfcs.org.

Community Partners

American Jewish Committee (AJC) San Francisco, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Central Pacific Region, Brandeis SF, Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Israeli American Council (IAC), Jewish Community Library, Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Bay Area, Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF), JIMENA, New Lehrhaus, SF Hillel, San Francisco Interfaith Council.

Participating Congregations

Congregation Adath Israel, Congregation Am Tikvah, Congregation Anshey Sfard, Congregation Beth Sholom, Congregation Chevra Thilim, Congregation Emanu-El, Congregation Ner Tamid, Congregation Sherith Israel, Sha’ar Zahav.

This program is proudly supported by the Israel Engagement Fund: A JCC Association of North America Program Accelerator and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

The Songs of Truth Holocaust Education Concert for schools is a joint program of Citizen Film, Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM) and Golden Gate Orchestra Symphony and Chorus. Support for The CJM’s Holocaust education programming is generously provided by the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund, Ron Kaufman and in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.