Academic Life ~ Center for Jewish Christian Studies and Relations ~ Yom HaShoah Service

Yom HaShoah Service

Holocaust Remembrance planned for April 30, 2008

The annual Yom HaShoah service at General Seminary will be held at 7:30p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. The public is invited, and the service will be followed by a reception in the Faculty Common Room.

Since 1988 students of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and The General Theological Seminary have come together to offer prayers, readings and music in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and to pray for all victims of genocide. Yom HaShoah, The Day of Remembrance, occurs yearly in the modern Jewish calendar after the conclusion of Passover.

The service uses a liturgy that was originally co-authored by students of both schools. The liturgical text has been modified by students over the years to incorporate additional tradition-specific perspectives and to reflect current world concerns. The service includes music and prayers from both Jewish and Christian traditions and the lighting of memorial candles.

Students and faculty from both institutions and also people from the neighborhoods of both schools in Manhattan are welcome to take parts in the service. Please be in touch with academicoffice@gts.edu to express interest.

Yom HaShoah offers each participant the opportunity to reflect on how, as people of faith, we can learn from this tragic chapter of our history. In addition, the service raises the question of how we can convey a message of a loving and concerned Creator to an increasingly skeptical and desensitized society.