Dear Fellow Congregants,

At Congregation Kol Emet, as with other contemporary congregations, we have a communal responsibility to say Kaddish for those souls who perished without a survivor. Each year we set aside a date to remember the victims of the Holocaust called Yom Hashoah. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor I grew up hearing stories from my mother and uncle about more than forty relatives killed in camps such as Auschwitz. My family remembers my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins nearly every day. We are also forever grateful to the Righteous Gentiles who risked their lives to save the lives of my mother and her brother in Belgium.

The Ritual Committee would like our Congregation to honor and say Kaddish for the victims of the Holocaust at all Kol Emet services including the Thursday morning Minyan and on Shabbat. I am asking for your participation in this beautiful idea. We are looking for congregants who would like to submit names of family members who were killed during this time. These names can be submitted to the office in the following format:

format: name of victim, information, relationship to congregant
example: Emil Kaplan, taken in September 1943, killed in Auschwitz, grandfather of Lisa Shiller

If a date of death is known, please give that date as well. If not, please pick the month you would like the Yartzeit to fall and a date will be assigned. Each family will be notified by postcard of the Yartzeit.

Congregants who would like to honor victims other than family members are welcomed to submit names and information. We would like to gather this information and read all the names at our Yom Hashoah service this spring and through the year.

Please submit the information to Judi in the office either through email (office@kolemet.org) or correspondence by March 9, 2009.

As more and more survivors pass on, it is essential the next generation takes steps to assure these victims will forever be remembered. Thank you and we look forward to your participation.

Lisa Shiller