Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation will present its annual Holocaust commemoration programs for Yom Hashoah this week.

The community commemoration event will be at noon today in the rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse, 120 Market St.

The annual Shoah Memorial Ceremony will be at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, 505 Gypsy Lane.

Both programs are free and open to the public.

Yom Hashoah is an internationally recognized day set aside for remembering all victims of the Holocaust and for reminding society of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign.

Other programs include a showing of “Among Neighbors” at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and a Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center exhibit in the Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation Art Gallery in the JCC.

Event organizers said winners of the JCRC’s student Holocaust writing and multimedia contest will be recognized at the Community Holocaust Commemoration at the courthouse.

The memorial ceremony at the JCC will feature the new Honigman Exhibit and a moving video that tells the life and love story of Frances and Abe Honigman, an enduring bond that survived the Holocaust. A memorial candle lighting ceremony to honor the 6 million who perished, will be part of both events.

“Among Neighbors” combines magical realism and evocative hand-drawn animation with revelatory interviews and verite footage to examine the story of a small, rural town where Jewish and Polish Catholics lived side by side for centuries before World War II. The film brings the Polish response to the Holocaust to life through the last living eyewitnesses, revealing both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on one of the last living Holocaust survivors from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there — not by Nazis, but by her own Polish neighbors. Visit jccyoungstown.org/filmfest to register.

The Yad Vashem exhibit, “When Time Stood Still” documents the fate of 15 families and their communities. The Holocaust claimed 6 million Jewish lives and destroyed the institutions that anchored Jewish life. This exhibition honors their memory by bringing these personal and communal stories to light.

This year’s local theme is “When Time Stood Still: The Fate of Jewish Families and Communities During the Holocaust.” It’s inspired by the 18-panel exhibit from Yad Vashem that highlights how each of the 6 million victims was more than just a number. Every individual had a unique identity — a life filled with hopes, fears, dreams, ambitions and most importantly, family. The Holocaust devastated Jewish families and communities across Europe. Synagogues, cemeteries, and cultural institutions were destroyed. In many cases, Holocaust survivors returned to their hometowns after liberation to find no one from their families alive.

The Holocaust Commemoration and Education Task Force, a committee of the JCRC, is chaired by Rabbi Joseph Schonberger and Rochelle Miller, children of Holocaust survivors, and consists of numerous children and grandchildren of survivors, and other interested volunteers from the community.

The Jewish Community Relations Council represents the Jewish communities of Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania to safeguard the rights of Jews here, in Israel, and around the world.