A joint Shoah Memorial Service was held in St Mary’s Crypt on evening of 9 May, 2017. Organised by the NSW Council for Christians and Jews, this event is a time for Interfaith reflection and remembrance.
This service began as a small interfaith service at Rookwood Cemetery back in 1991 which was initiated by the late Sister Leonore Sharry from the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camps. The following year the service was transferred to the Crypt at St Mary’s Cathedral where the Sho’ah commemoration has become an important tradition and a way to ensure the enormity of the horror of what occurred during World War II is never forgotten.
This year marks the 26th year the NSW Council of Christians and Jews Sho′ah Memorial Service has been held as a time for Interfaith reflection and remembrance. Christians and those from other faiths were invited to attend the Memorial Service in the Crypt at St Mary’s Cathedral in commemoration of the millions who died in the Holocaust of World War II. The Sho’ah commemoration has become an important tradition and a way to ensure the enormity of the horror of what occurred during World War II is never forgotten.
This evening (9 May 2017) in the Crypt Of St Mary’s Cathedral at the Council of Christians and Jews ( CCJ) Shoah Memorial Service. President of the CCJ Jolyon Bromley narrates, followed by Rabbi Elton, Survivor Francine Lazarus, Cantor Josh Weinberger Chants the Memorial prayer.
Children from Knox College and SCEGGS lit the 6 candles. Wilma Viswanathan and Anna Berger lit the 7 & 8th candles (7th for the non Jews and 8th for the Righteous Gentiles). Sr Marianne Dacy who wrote the script, read the moving poem by a victim who was subsequently killed in Auschwitz. George Sternfeld recited the names of some of the many Death Camps. A moving evening.
