The following is from a press release.
On Sunday April 19, St. Joseph’s Church of Maplewood will host the 38th consecutive annual South Orange/Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service at 4 pm. Attendees are invited to assemble at 3pm for a March of Remembrance, starting at the corner of Indiana and Springfield Aves in Maplewood (site of Maplewood Farmer’s Market) and continuing on to St Joseph Church. Town officials from South Orange and Maplewood will be present. The service follows at St. Joseph Church at 767 Prospect Street.
The service this year commemorates the 70th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps in Europe in February 1945. Marcia Kreuzman, a local resident who survived Mauthausen concentration camp, will address the gathering. In 2013, Mrs. Kreuzman connected with Joe Barbella, a camp liberator who served in the U.S. Army, 11th Armored Division. Mr. Barbella was at Mauthausen to help survivors at the time of their liberation. Their meeting received attention in national media.
The program is dedicated to the memory of Sister Rose Thering of Seton Hall University, Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein of Congregation Beth El and Max Randall, a member of South Mountain B’nai Brith, who worked together to establish the event thirty-eight years ago, the first interfaith Holocaust memorial in the state of New Jersey.
The program will feature readings by local clergy reflecting this historical event and the theme of personal accountability. Voices in Harmony, an interfaith choral ensemble in Essex County, directed by Cantor Perry Fine of Temple Shalom in Livingston, will perform a song of the liberation.
Every year the Remembrance committee honors an individual with the Sister Rose Thering Award to recognize commitment to the educational ideals of Sister Rose. This year, Reverend Lawrence E. Frizzell, Director of the Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange is the selected recipient for his years of contributing to creating tolerance through education.
Artwork created by middle school students of Ellen Hark at South Orange Middle School will be on display at St Josephs from Saturday through Sunday afternoon for viewing by attendees and congregants. The work is a reflection of the Holocaust curriculum in their school.
A reception will follow at St Josephs. This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Susan Singer, 617 319 3551, sjsinger@erols.com or Dorit Tabak, (973) 275-0225, DoritTabak@gmail.com.
