This year marks the 31st anniversary of the global Shoah initiative “Unto Every Person There is a Name”. This public recitation of names of Holocaust victims will be held around the world on Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Day observed this year on Tuesday, April 21, 2020.

This extremely moving program usually takes place in Atlanta on a Friday close to Yom Hashoah in the rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol Building downtown at 206 Washington Street SW.  We had scheduled the program for April 24 this year; however, in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, we shall have to observe this ceremony a little differently, without large gatherings.

During these challenging times this year, the Achim/Gate City Lodge of B’nai B’rith International in partnership with Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple invite you to join us and mark Holocaust Remembrance Day from your homes. Help us to restore the memory of those murdered during the Holocaust by bringing “Unto Every Person There is a Name” to Atlanta through a Zoom virtual webinar on Tuesday, April 21 from noon to 3:00 PM. We invite attendees to log into the virtual reading of the names by clicking on the Zoom URL –https://zoom.us/j/97535589715. Individuals who wish to participate as readers of the names should contact Harry Lutz, program chair at harry.lutz.45@gmail.com or 678-485- 8179.  We will provide lists of names or you may read names of family you have lost.

The “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony provides the opportunity to remember the victims of the Holocaust, six million Jews, among them one and a half million children as the names of victims are read aloud, they are remembered.  Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple commented, “For many on these lists, it is the only time their name will be said aloud as their entire family was murdered or there is no one left to remember them. It is important that the Atlanta community join this global effort to memorialize the six million individuals we lost in the Holocaust.”

Coordinated by Yad Vashem through the efforts of four major Jewish organizations – B’nai B’rith International, Nativ, World Jewish Congress, and World Zionist Organization, “Unto Every Person There is a Name” sets time aside on Yom Hashoah for reading aloud names of the individual lives mercilessly taken by the Nazis. The readings are done on the same day in hundreds of Jewish communities around the world.  In the U.S., this nationally observed program is organized by B’nai B’rith International, and in Atlanta, it is coordinated by the B’nai B’rith Achim/Gate City Lodge.

Harry Lutz, the local coordinator of this program for many years for the Atlanta B’nai B’rith lodge, says that “the “Unto Every Person There is a Name” program is always an incredibly moving experience for me, both hearing names being read and reading aloud the names of victims myself.  I am constantly picturing in my mind that there are more than SIX MILLION of these names.”

The theme for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020 announced by the international committee is: “Rescue by Jews during the Holocaust: Solidarity in a Disintegrating World”.  Click to read rescue stories.
2019 at GA State Capitol-A 2019 at GA State Capitol-B 2019 at GA State Capitol-C
As Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel said, “Even as we read out the names separately, we can continue to remember- together. …I call upon you to join me and my fellow citizens of the State of Israel, and with members of world-wide Jewish communities, in carrying out the ceremony known as “Unto Every Person There is a Name” on Yom HaShoah this year in your homes.”
To date, more than 4,800,000 names of Holocaust victims have been recorded in Yad Vashem’s online Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, with over 2,750,000 names registered on Pages of Testimony.
You can assist in the ongoing names collection campaign by downloading and distributing Pages of Testimony, or by submitting them online through the Yad Vashem website: www.yadvashem.org.
Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, commented, “Sadly, the generation of Shoah survivors is dwindling rapidly. As the bearers of their legacy, we must do everything possible to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust’s victims. By reciting their names, ages, and places of death, we keep their memory alive and remind ourselves that each man, woman, and child was, and is an entire world.”
In addition to our local “Unto Every Person There is a Name”  Zoom virtual observance, the Achim-Gate City Lodge of B’nai B’rith International joins Yad Vashem in inviting the public to participate in an international online initiative to recite, record and share the names of Holocaust victims. Participants should video themselves reciting names (up to 15 seconds) and then share the video in their social media with the hashtags: #RememberingFromHome #ShoahNames. Please also tag @bnaibrithATL on Facebook posts.
Lists of names of Holocaust victims will be accessible on Yad Vashem’s website or participants may choose to remember a family member or friend. Yad Vashem will then use some of these videos to create an online Holocaust Remembrance Day Global Name Reading Ceremony. To access names for recitation: https://www.yadvashem.org/downloads.html#name-reading-ceremonies.
The official opening ceremony at Yad Vashem marking the commencement of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2020 will be filmed in advance without an audience and broadcast on Monday, 20 April at 20:00 (8 PM) Israel time. The ceremony will be broadcast on Israel’s television and radio channels accessible via the internet, and in six languages on Yad Vashem’s website and youtube channels.

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