In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week, members of American University’s Hillel chapter and students gathered by the Kay Spiritual Life Center on April 2 and 3 for a 24-hour name reading of Holocaust victims.
AU Hillel also tabled on the quad for students to learn about the Holocaust and held an event on April 1 where Ruth Cohen, a Holocaust survivor, shared her story.
“Join us in honoring all those that the devastation of the Holocaust reached, and reminding ourselves of the crucial lessons that history can teach us today,” AU Hillel wrote in an Instagram post.
The 24-hour reading started at 11 a.m. and ended the following morning with the Mourner’s Kaddish, a Jewish prayer recited in memory of the dead. Students on campus were able to walk up to the table and participate in reading names through a loudspeaker.
Sarah Grand, a freshman in the School of International Service and a committee member for the chapter’s Holocaust Remembrance Week events, said various fraternities and sororities came to show their support at the name reading, as well as other organizations such as AU Catholic.
Administrators also signed up to read names, such as President Jonathan Alger, Vice President of Student Affairs Raymond Ou and Dean of the Kogod School of Business David Marchick. Grand said this made her feel supported by students and the University administration.
For her, name reading meant remembering the lives that were lost.
“If we stop talking about it, we forget, and those lives don’t deserve to be forgotten, and it should never happen again,” Grand said. “Keeping the memory alive helps to prevent such an atrocity from reoccurring.”
Leah Wayne, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a Jewish life ambassador intern at Hillel International, whose job is to engage and involve students with AU Hillel. Last year, she was chair of the naming committee, so she decided to help out this year.
Wayne appreciates the participation from both students and administration, and said the remembrance “means bringing those names back to life.”
“I think it’s important to know that there’s just so many people, it’s a real thing and that education needs to happen,” Wayne said.
Stephanie Parnes, a freshman in SIS, said her great-grandmother’s parents and five siblings were killed in Auschwitz, but her great-grandmother and one sibling survived. She said the remembrance has personal significance to her.
“This is a way to not only honor my family, but to also honor the situation and to honor everyone who was part of this horrific tragedy,” Parnes said.
Parnes said the remembrance will bring positive outcomes for students, especially due to the large Jewish population on campus.
“I think that this will unite us and bring us together,” Parnes said. “I do hold hope that this will continue being successful in the future.”
This article was edited by Payton Anderson, Maya Cederlund, Tyler Davis and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Olivia Citarella, Ariana Kavoossi, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Hannah Langenfeld.
