Yom Hashoah

Ages All

Honor and remember. Yom HaShoah is a solemn day when many Jewish communities hold special ceremonies to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.

Holiday Events

Established in 1951 and officially known as Yom Hazikaron LaShoah V’lagvurah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day), this holiday is a solemn day when many Jewish communities hold special ceremonies to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.

Yom HaShoah begins at sunset, May 5 // Observed May 6, 2024

Please join us for the San Francisco community-wide Yom Hashoah commemoration and day of learning – in person for the first time in five years – presented by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, in partnership with community organizations and synagogues.

Opportunities to Honor

Honor of the millions of people who perished in the Holocaust through reflection and action for Yom HaShoah. Celebrate the bravery, resilience and creativity of the heroes and communities who survived and continue to thrive around the world today.

Here are a selection of ways to commemorate Yom HaShoah on your own, with family and friends or with community this year.

Light a 24-hour memorial candle starting in the evening of Sunday, May 5. If you don’t have one, light any candle to honor those who perished in the Holocaust.
Remember loved ones by contributing their names to be read at the Bay Area Yom HaShoah Commemoration on Sunday, May 5. Submit names here.
Gather with community for the Bay Area HaShoah Commemoration & Day of Learning on Sunday, May 5.
Read powerful fiction and nonfiction stories that illuminate the heroism and the horror of the Holocaust. This Scholastic booklist is curated especially for grades 1 – 12, with many selections meaningful for adults too.
Teach your children about the Holocaust to build a next generation made up of kind, empathetic, and inclusive individuals. Use this guide for age-appropriate ways to approach this conversation with young children.
Listen to survivors tell their own story in this incredible collection of over 1000 interviews collected by the Yiddish Book Center Oral History Project.
Make a butterfly, a symbol of freedom from oppression, to remember the lives of the children lost during the Holocaust. Explore The Butterfly Project, and then create a butterfly using this template.
Explore poetry written by survivors to peer through a window into a time that is difficult to comprehend. Here’s a place to begin.
Hear the music created by dozens of violins rescued from the Holocaust that have been collected and restored in the collection Violins of Hope.
Watch descendants of Holocaust survivors tell their stories and the impact of carrying family trauma through the generations in JCCSF’s video collection What We Carry With Us.

Remember Through Stories

The What We Carry With Us series tells the Passover story through modern-day refugees and descendants in a “show and tell” of precious objects they carry with them on their journey to freedom. The stories below also share a special significance with Yom HaShoah as the people highlighted in each film are all descendants of Holocaust survivors.