Students gathered by The Rock at dusk Thursday to commemorate the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, with some of the approximately 40 students in attendance clasping hands or closing their eyes as the vigil began.
“It’s one of the most important events in Jewish history, in human history,” said Campus Rabbi Josh Feigelson. “It’s important, particularly on this campus, where we still have people who deny the historical reality of it.”
NU Hillel and Tannenbaum Chabad House co-sponsored the vigil held on the international Holocaust Remembrance Day, called Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. Students read poetry written by Holocaust victims and survivors, lit special yellow candles and read a list of 60 student-submitted names of family members killed in the Holocaust.
“If we just say, ‘6 million’ a bunch of times, the figure becomes so abstract and really hard to hold onto,” said Beth Kacel, a Weinberg sophomore. “But reading a list of names really gives people a sense of how many people were killed in really terrible ways.”
After students lit the candles, Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein, of Tannenbaum Chabad House, spoke of the importance of remembering the Holocaust and the need to prevent other “miniature Holocausts” around the world. As he spoke, students formed a circle and held hands.
“It’s inconceivable,” Klein said. “Six million Jewish people; 12 million people died during the Holocaust. How can we fathom that number? Six million were killed simply because they were Jews and no other reason.”
Students Helping to Organize Awareness of the Holocaust began planning the event about two months ago, Kacel said.
The group decided to hold the vigil at The Rock because of the community atmosphere the area conveys, said SESP senior Alyssa Kasten, the group’s former president.
“While it’s outdoors, I feel like it’s more intimate,” Kasten said. “The Rock provides the right atmosphere and setting for people to circle around, come together, be close to one another, to really form more of a community. Physically, it’s more supportive.”
Communication sophomore Saagit Scher is one of many NU students whose family members survived the Holocaust.
“I would always ask them questions about it, but they didn’t always give answers,” Scher said. “They didn’t want to bring back memories or make us feel uncomfortable.”
Though about 40 students attended the vigil, organizers were more concerned with the quality of the event than the number of attendees, Kacel said.
“I think it’s really special for students to take time out of their day, ” said SESP sophomore Scott Topal, president of NU Hillel. “We live in a busy world. To take time out of their day to remember something that happened 60 years ago is really important.”
To commemorate the dead, students threw stones into a metal pail as the names of the victims were read.
“Flowers die, and these lives and these graves are supposed to be commemorated forever, and stones last forever,” Kacel said. “The people who lost their lives are gone forever; they’re never going to come back. But we’re still here, we’re still going to remember them; we have to keep living our lives and being strong.”
The sound of a single flute filled the area as Music junior Sarah Pernick finished the ceremony with the melody of “Ani Ma’amin,” a solemn Hebrew song about faith that was sung by some Jews on the way to their deaths at concentration camps.
