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Boston University’s Florence & Chafetz Hillel House honored Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Thursday by holding a candle lighting ceremony and reading the names of Holocaust victims in Marsh Plaza.
Yom Hashoah began Wednesday evening ended Thursday evening.
The reading of the names lasted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and featured BU students and faculty who volunteered to read the names in ten-minute shifts throughout the day. The readers were a diverse group of people from around the university who came together in order to remember and honor the tragedy.
Emily Singer, a member of BU Hillel and one of the organizers of the ceremony, said there are many reasons the volunteers chose to get involved.
“They volunteer their time during the day to man the table, answer questions about Yom Hashoah as well just being a supportive, friendly face for people who walk up,” Singer said.
Singer said the name reading and information table garnered a lot of attention and questions from those passing by.
“I think it’s really important that we … not only [honor] Holocaust Remembrance Day, but also that it is in Marsh Plaza, so everybody walking by is kind of forced to listen to us read the names of the perished,” she said, “not only to remind them of the Holocaust, but also [of] genocides throughout the world.”
Singer said they tried to get through as many names as possible during their nine hours in Marsh Plaza.
“There are 11 million people that perished in the Holocaust, and we specifically focus on the six million Jews that passed away,” said Singer.
At the conclusion of the name reading, Matthew Guenoun, the chairman of the Holocaust Education Committee for BU Hillel, spoke about the importance of the event on a personal and social level.
“If you think a genocide cannot happen today, and it’s just something from the past, you’re wrong,” he said. “We cannot wait until every religious group goes through a genocide before we decide to act.”
The candle lighting followed Guenoun’s speech. Prominent members of the BU religious community volunteered to each light a candle for the victims of the Holocaust.
Several students who attended the ceremony said it was important and impactful for them.
Rob O’Brien, a sophomore in the Questrom School of Business and president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, led a “We Walk To Remember” event Wednesday and Thursday with his fraternity to honor the victims of the Holocaust.
O’Brien said the walk and Hillel’s name reading and candle lighting Thursday night are imperative to keep the memories of those who lost their lives.
“It is up to all of us as the next generation to remember to honor them,” he said. “I am thankful that there are many ways on campus to do so. As a Jewish student in a Jewish fraternity at BU, I think it is extremely important and fortunate that such events are and continue to be available to the community.”
Matthew Bretschneider, a freshman in the College of General Studies, said it is important to accept that oppression exists and advocate against it.
“Everyone can understand oppression if we have events like this open to everybody. It shows how we fight against that,” he said. “It’s important to remember because there’s Holocaust deniers out there, a lot of them, actually, in the world. It’s important that we speak out. My grandfather is a Holocaust survivor, so to come out here today to remember the event is special.”
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