Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:30 PM
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh
Sunday, April 25, 2011, 7:30 pm
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh
For 31 years South Hills Interfaith Ministry has been holding Interfaith Holocaust Observance Services, alternating between Jewish and non-Jewish host congregations.
The passage of time has given the services particular urgency. The average age of Holocaust survivors is over 80; fewer remain each year. Popular culture is at a turning point in the opportunities it presents for people to connect to the Holocaust, for example the Oscar-nominated fantasy revenge film ‘Inglourious Basterds’.
“That is why we are so passionate about keeping the real stories alive, the voices of actual survivors who lived through those hard-to-believe events.”
Elaine Wertheim, the creative force behind the SHIM Interfaith Holocaust Observance Service, feels that as the survivors age people of faith have a moral duty: “we must be their voices.”
The 2010 Observance honored the voices and stories of Holocaust survivors with ties to Pittsburgh. It shone a light on the uncommon courage in these stories: the courage to help total strangers, the courage to face danger and hardship, and the courage to reclaim life after trauma greater than any fiction film could capture.
As is tradition in Yom Hashoah services, the SHIM service included the lighting of six candles, one for each million of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. The candle lighters were survivors, or their family members, with ties to Pittsburgh.
Each year, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, four South Hills congregations come together to hold a joint Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. Bower Hill Presbyterian, Temple Emmanuel, Good Shepard Catholic Church and Our Lady of Grace are the participating congregations. All community members are welcome.
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