Yom HaShoah: 2025

Holocaust Remembrance Day Programs in Atlantic Canada

Halifax, NS: Wednesday, April 23 | 7:00 PM | Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road.

Keynote Speakers: Peggy and Shimon Walt “Finding our Jewish Family in Lithuania” in conversation with Olga Milosevich. Program includes a commemorative candle-lighting ceremony, and a reception to follow the program.

Moncton, NB: Thursday, April 24 | 7 PM | Tiferes Israel Synagogue, 56 Steadman Street.

Keynote Speaker: Ivana Fogarty, “Echoes of Resilience”; program includes prayers, lighting of memorial candles, and fellowship.

Join Ivana Fogarty, a third-generation Holocaust survivor, as she shares her grandparents’ powerful survival story. Drawing from her translation of “The Loves I Have Lost” by Alica Fruhwaldova, Ivana honors the memories of those who endured unimaginable hardships and celebrates the resilience and love that sustained them. This presentation is a tribute to the enduring spirit of Holocaust survivors and the importance of remembrance and education.

Saint John, NB: Thursday, April 24 | 7:30 PM | Shaarei Zedek Synagogue, 91 Leinster Street.

Keynote Speaker: Roslyn Harrush who will share the survival story of her mother, Eta Langsam and reflect on her experience of growing up in Montreal as a child of Holocaust survivors. Members of the local Jewish community will light memorial candles, share music and photographs of family members impacted by the Holocaust. 

Eta Langsam survived the Vilna Ghetto, and three camps including Stutthof in Germany. She lived in the displaced persons camp at Bergen-Belsen from 1945 to 1948, where she married and gave birth to her oldest child, a son. While in Bergen-Belsen, she met another survivor, who asked her to record his testimony about the mass graves in Ponar Forest, near Vilnius, Lithuania. Her mother later learned of a cousin who was among those  sent by the Nazis to hide the evidence of the graves and he was able to escape through a hidden tunnel with ten others.

Fredericton, NB: Sunday, April 27 | 1PM | Capitol Community Church, 71 Downing Street.

Keynote Speakers: Peggy and Shimon Walt “Finding our Jewish Family in Lithuania”. The program will include songs, a memorial candle-lighting ceremony, and a reception to follow the program.

There were five in cellist Shimon Walt’s family growing up: him and his brother, his parents, and his grandmother, a fortunate few in the just five per cent of Lithuania’s Jews who survived the Holocaust. When his wife asked the names of the other family members who’d been killed, he didn’t know; what happened in Vilna, the “Jerusalem of Lithuania,” was never discussed. Peggy was determined to find them. In 2023 Shimon reluctantly agreed to return to his birthplace, meeting cousins for the first time, and visiting killing sites in Estonia and Lithuania where members of his family had been murdered. To honour them, he borrowed a cello and played at Ponar. The couple next travelled to Israel to share what they’d found with Shimon’s 95-year-old mother. Hear the story about finding the lost family, and Shimon’s emotional return to Vilna in this talk illustrated with photos and music.

Past Events 2025:

January 21, 2025: Program to commemorate Raoul Wallenberg Day and International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In honour of Raoul Wallenberg Commemoration Day and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Atlantic Jewish Council in partnership with the University of King’s College present a talk with award-winning author Kenny Fries, “Stumbling Over History: Disability and the Holocaust”.

• Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 7PM.
• Alumni Hall, University of King’s College, 6350 Coburg Rd. (in the New Academic Building).
• This program will be livestreamed:

January 21, Livestream link please click here

Holocaust Survivor Short Films: The Azrieli Series

Below is a link to the Azrieli Foundation Series of 25 Holocaust survivor short films.

Included in this series is Helena Jockel Z”L (1919 -2016) testimony, recorded in her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Jockel’s memoirs, We Sang in Hushed Voices, was published by the Azrieli Foundation in 2014. When the Nazis invade Hungary on March 19, 1944, all elementary school teacher Helena Jockel can think about is how to save “her” children. She accompanies them to Auschwitz-Birkenau only to see them taken to the gas chamber. In her clear-eyed and heartbreaking account of living and surviving in the camp and on a death march, she records both the too-brief moments of beauty and kindness and the unremitting cruelty. After the war, as she renews her passion for teaching under a Communist regime that will not allow her to speak about the Holocaust, Helena refuses to hide the fact that she is Jewish. Helena’s memoirs include an introduction by Dr. Dorota Glowacka.

The Holocaust Education Week program with Shimon & Peggy Walt, in conversation with Olga Milosevich, has been rescheduled to the evening of Wednesday, April 23, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) at the Halifax Central Library. Details coming soon.

In case you missed it! Past program links: 2024

Cancellation Notice for November 6: Closing Program for Holocaust Education Week

We regret to inform you that the Holocaust Education Week closing program with Shimon & Peggy Walt on Wednesday evening, November 6, at the Halifax Central Library, has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We greatly appreciate your understanding. We are working to re-schedule.

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In case you missed it! Recorded Holocaust Education Week Programs:

Opening: Sunday, October 27, 2024 | “Jewish Lament Poetry Across 2500 Years”

Keynote Speaker: Eva Mroczek, Simon and Riva Spatz Chair in Jewish Studies, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. Opening Remarks: Dr. Jim Spatz, Executive Chairman Southwest Properties

Eva Mroczek is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University and the Simon and Riva Spatz Chair in Jewish Studies | Link to: Recorded Program

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Friday, November 1, 2024 | Keynote Speaker: Dorota Glowacka, Professor of Humanities, University of King’s College. Opening Remarks: U.S. Consul General Viki Limaye.

“Hidden Words: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of Young Diary Writers”

Dorota Glowacka is Professor of Humanities at the University of King’s College, Halifax. Link to: Recorded Program CONTENT WARNING: This program contains mature content.

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Monday, November 4, 2024 (recorded on November 5, at the student program). Keynote Speaker: Eva Kuper, Holocaust survivor, in conversation with Elin Beaumont, Special Events and Holocaust Survivor Relations, The Azrieli Foundation. Recorded Program with Eva Kuper

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CANCELLED: Wednesday, November 6 | 6:30 p.m. | Keynote Speakers: Peggy and Shimon Walt.

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Holocaust Education Week 2024

Holocaust Education Week is presented by the Atlantic Jewish Council, and made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Azrieli Foundation. Programs offered are in partnership with the University of King’s College, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Dalhousie University, and with support from the Halifax Central Library.