Rockhurst University to Observe Yom Hashoah

Rockhurst University, in cooperation with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, will host an annual observance of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Monday, April 28.

Designed as a day of reflection on the relevance of the Holocaust in today’s society, this year’s observance will incorporate the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance 2014 theme, “Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses,” by honoring the life of Ilse Marcus, a refugee on the passenger ship St. Louis, which was denied access to the United States in 1939.

Between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.  in the University’s Kinerk Commons, volunteer students, faculty, staff and Kansas City community members will continuously read the names of those who were killed by the Nazis, including the 152 Jesuit victims.

From 2:30 to 3 p.m., the University will host a short prayer service in its Finucane Jesuit Center, featuring the Ayl Mahlay Rachamim recited by Hazzan Tahl Ben-Yehuda of Congregation Beth Shalom and musical selections from the Rockhurst University Choir and the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy Choir under the direction of Nick Brown.

The event will mark the ninth such annual observance on campus, a tradition that began in 2006, led by the efforts of then-freshman Andy Julo. The University is home to a plaque honoring the 152 Jesuit victims of the Holocaust. That plaque, located near the outer entrance to the Finucane Jesuit Center, is thought to be the only one of its kind in the world.