Yom HaShoah ceremony honors holocaust survivors and fights antisemitism

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County hosted a powerful and deeply moving Yom HaShoah commemoration on Thursday evening, drawing nearly 80 attendees who gathered to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and to reaffirm the ongoing responsibility to fight antisemitism and hatred in all forms.
At the heart of the ceremony was 89-year-old Gilda Zirinsky, who lit the first of six memorial candles—each representing one million Jewish lives lost. Zirinsky shared her memories of fleeing the Nazi regime as a 4-year-old in Belgium, describing the ominous drone of German warplanes overhead and the chaos as her parents packed hurried suitcases filled with clothes, documents, and chocolates.
Her story of survival was punctuated by moments of chance and miracles. As her extended family of 14 traveled by train across Europe to evade the Nazis, her father and two male cousins were conscripted into the Polish resistance in France. Later, after France’s surrender, Zirinsky’s mother took a leap of faith, waiting at a train station where she believed her husband might return. Against all odds, they were reunited.
The ceremony fell on the 27th day of Nissan on the Hebrew calendar, a date set between Passover and Israel’s Independence Day to also mark the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, one of the most significant acts of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Donna Rosenblum, the center’s education director, emphasized the symbolism of the timing and its relevance to modern acts of courage and remembrance.
“Yom HaShoah is not only about mourning—it is about resistance,” Rosenblum said. “It’s about carrying forward the message that the survivors entrusted to us.”

Rosenblum also reflected on her own journey into Holocaust education, which began in 1988 when she was one of 44 teachers selected nationwide to study in Israel. At just 23, she was the youngest of the group, studying at Yad Vashem and the Ghetto Fighters’ House in northern Israel under the guidance of ghetto survivors like Vladka and Ben Meed.
Quoting Wiesel, Rosenblum reminded the audience that survivors never told their stories to provoke pity. “They told them to make the world a better place. But the message hasn’t changed much.
Rabbi Michael S. Churgel of the North Country Reform Temple in Glen Cove reflected on the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, describing it as a generation-defining event, much like the Holocaust.
“In the face of the unthinkable and the wake of the ungraspable, Jews find comfort in being with one another,” Churgel told the group at the ceremony. “To be Jewish, is to remember, we fulfill the mitzvah of remembrance.”
Rabbi Irwin Huberman of Congregation Tifereth Israel echoed that call, linking Holocaust memory to the strength of modern-day Israel. He spoke about programs like March of the Living, which takes students to Auschwitz and then to Israel’s Independence Day celebration.
“These kids come back different,” Huberman said. “They understand the connection between the Holocaust and the resilience of Eretz Israel.