Members of AU's Jewish community read names of Holocaust victims on the steps of the Kay Spiritual Center Wednesday as part of Holocaust Remembrance Week.
"I thought the event was really great," Gunning said. "I thought having it in the middle of the day would make people more aware of what we are doing this week," said Sara Gunning, Holocaust remembrance week chair for the Jewish Student Association.
According to Gunning, this is the second remembrance week on AU's campus.
Hillary Blank, a first year student, is the executive religious education and cultural director of AU's Jewish Student Association. Blank plans to attend every Holocaust Remembrance Week event.
"A particular event that I think is going to be interesting is the free kosher lunch," Blank said.
A Holocaust survivor will be speaking at the lunch.
"The truth is that firsthand accounts of the Holocaust are disappearing every day," Blank said. "Most survivors say their goal is to provide a face-to-face account and not to simply be a survivor read about in a book or in a movie."
According to Blank, 35 states require Holocaust education. "Exposure is so much better than 20 years ago," Blank said. "I believe that public schools need to not just understand the historical context but psychological aspects behind [the Holocaust].
According to AU Hillel's web site, www.hillel.org, the goals of Holocaust Awareness Week include: increasing awareness and understanding of the Holocaust, strengthening the Jewish community's relationship with other communities on campus and to engage Jewish students who identify "Jewishly" through the Holocaust.
"For Holocaust Remembrance Week, we thought it was important to remember the horrors of the Holocaust with modern genocide," said Robert Killip, president of the JSA. "We have also worked with other groups affected including the GLBTA community."
Events throughout the week include panels, guest speakers and movies. "The Gift of Life," a bone marrow donation drive will conclude the week on Sunday.
"The truth is that a lot of Jewish bloodlines were lost in the Holocaust," Blank said. "There is a lack of Jewish representation in transplant databases."
According to www.giftoflife.org, the goal of the organization is to "Facilitate bone marrow transplants for patients around the world suffering from life-threatening illnesses by increasing the representation of the Jewish people in the bone marrow donor pool."
With bone marrow, the closer a person is to DNA of the donor, the better the chance of a match.
At George Washington University, over 250 students were tested for their bone marrow and two matches were found, according to Blank. Students can donate their bone marrow from noon to 5 p.m. in the Gianni Lounge.
