Temple Beth El of Patchogue carried out its 4th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Service on Sunday, April 19, a date that marked the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Germany. An interfaith event, residents were invited to listen as community leaders and religious figures spoke about the impact still felt today by the Holocaust.
Temple Beth El spiritual leader Rabbi Ilan Pardo, accompanied by Temple Beth El Sisterhood president Michele Nuceder, welcomed residents as “The Partisan’s Song” was sung. The song was inspired by the news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a Jewish movement resisting Nazi Germany’s gas chamber transportation of Warsaw Ghetto residents, and acted as a powerful message to Jewish people in 1943 to fight for their survival. Reverend Dwight Lee Wolter of the Congregational Church of Patchogue followed by reading a quote by Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel.
Several Patchogue figures came to share their own words about the Holocaust and read passages, including mayor Paul Pontieri and Suffolk County Legis. Dominick S. Thorne.
“There’s an opportunity to bridge gaps and bridge misunderstandings—and bridge people together. And that’s what we all should do every day,” Thorne said.
Holocaust survivor Arnie Newfield spoke as a keynote speaker for the service. Having survived the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen at the age 3, Newfield emphasized that he lived through unspeakable atrocities, and he’s only here now thanks to his mother protecting him every step of the way. Rather than letting these atrocities always fill him with anger, he wanted to share his own perspective.
“My message is, you’re allowed to get angry. Everybody gets angry.
You’re not allowed to hold onto that anger,” Newfield shared. His brother, Marcel, was never able to let go of his own anger from the Holocaust, being forced in the concentration camp with his parents as a child, and died at 58. His brother, Billy, never let go of the exclusion he felt, being born after the Holocaust was over, and died at 60. Newfield doesn’t want people to hold onto the anger that his brothers did.
Rabbi Pardo then read the Mourner’s Kaddish Prayer. “Ani V’Atah” was also sung, a song in Hebrew about wishing to change the world. St. Joseph University student Anthony Esposito then shared a Holocaust Survivor’s recount of returning to Auschwitz.
The Memorial Candles were then lit by people of the community in remembrance of the millions lost. El Maleh Rachamim, a memorial prayer, was carried out with the lighting. Rabbi Pardo shared Psalm passages, and Fr. James E. Reiss of St Paul’s Episcopal Church read “The Children’s March.” Deacon Marty McIndoe of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church spoke aloud “The Creed of A Holocaust Survivor,” a poem by Alexander Kimel about believing despite pain one can endure.
Deacon McIndoe, Fr. Reiss, and Rabbi Pardo joined together for a priestly blessing to close the service.
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