Rockhurst University to Observe Holocaust Remembrance Day

On Monday, April 20, the Rockhurst University community will again commemorate the victims of the Holocaust during the University’s annual observance of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, in cooperation with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.

From 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., volunteers will continuously read the names of victims of the Holocaust on Kinerk Commons. The list includes the 152 Jesuits who also died at the hands of the Nazis.

From 2:30 to 3 p.m., the University will host a brief prayer service in the Finucane Jesuit Center in the lower level of the Greenlease Library, featuring selections performed by both the Rockhurst University choir and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy choir. Hazzan Ben-Yehuda, cantor for Overland Park’s Congregation Beth-Shalom, will perform the Ayl Mahlay-Rachamim, a traditional Jewish funeral prayer.

The University’s observance of Yom Hashoah is an effort that began in 2006 and has grown each year as a unique student-led interfaith partnership with Kansas City’s Jewish community. In 2007, Rockhurst unveiled a plaque outside of the Finucane Jesuit Center honoring all 152 Jesuit victims of the Holocaust, thought to be the only such memorial in the world.