NYC’s annual Holocaust remembrance will be virtual

New York City’s annual Gathering of Remembrance, presented by the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, will be virtual this year. It’ll happen on Sunday, April 19, at 2 p.m.

The memorial, traditionally the largest Holocaust commemoration in the country, is held each year on the Sunday closest to Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The performances, remarks, and candle lighting ceremony for this year’s online gathering will be prerecorded and then it will be available on Facebook, YouTube, and the Museum’s website.

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Speakers include Rita Lerner of Englewood Cliffs, a museum trustee; Bruce Ratner, that chairman; and Jack Kliger, its president and CEO. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Israeli Ambassador Dani Dayan will appear; Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the actor Steven Skybell, who played Tevye in the Yiddish “Fiddler on the Roof,” and others will light memorial candles; and actress Julianna Margulies will narrate a video.

There will also be an invocation, Kaddish, and reflections from both a Holocaust survivor and a third generation survivor. Musical performances will include the piece “Won’t Be Silent,” composed by Wolf Durmashkin while he was held in a concentration camp; Durmashkin was Ms. Lerner’s uncle. The composition was recently rediscovered and received new life and new lyrics written by Grammy-nominated songwriter Kara DioGaurdi.

Everyone is welcome to participate by lighting memorial candles and uploading video and photographs to the Museum’s Facebook page and by using the hashtag #CandlesOfRemembrance. For more information, go to mjhnyc.org.