Members of Congregation B’Nai Israel and Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church will host their annual Holocaust Remembrance Service on April 19 at 4 p.m. at the B’Nai Israel Synagogue, 1633 Ga.Highway 54, east of Fayetteville at the corner of Ga. Hwy. 54 and Corinth Road at the Clayton County line.
The congregations have jointly observed this solemn day since 2004. Included will be 11 readings accompanying the lighting of 11 candles, one for each of the 11 million who died in the Holocaust (six million Jews and five million Roma, homosexuals, and others).
Singers from both congregations will form a choir, and the COS Flute Choir will play. The Shema (“Hear, O Israel”), Veahavta (Deuteronomy 6:4-7), and Kaddish (mourner’s prayer) will all be spoken, along with scripture readings. Children will read three evocative poems.
The guest speaker will be Richard Harkavy, rabbi of Bet Chavarim, a reform synagogue in the Seattle, Wash., area. Harkavy has been the director of a Holocuast museum in the New York area, and has worked at Yad Vashem, the world center of Holocaust research, education, and commemoration in Jerusalem. He teaches college courses on various aspects of the Holocaust. Also a lawyer, he is a former executive director of the National Jewish Committee.
After the service, CBI will host a covered outdoor reception.
