Since 1989 on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, B'nai B'rith International has been the North American sponsor of "Unto Every Person, There Is a Name" ceremonies.
Participants name the victims and where and when they were born and died. The ceremonies occur on the 27th day of the month of Nissan on the Jewish calendar. These observances, created by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, honor more victims each year, as the project collects more names.
2011 Program
The observance of Unto Every Person There is a Name will be held on Yom Hashoah, May 1.
The theme for 2011 suggested by Yad Vashem is "Fragments of Memory," which provides the basic framework for ceremonies and observances around the world.
The campaign to collect names of victims is especially important to stress this year as Yad Vashem reports that the name recovery project has now reached the watershed mark of 4 million names. The victims are memorialized on Pages of Testimony.
Reading of names of victims at public ceremonies give these victims an identity that has been lost forever.
Yad Vashem is making a major push to try to find 1 million additional names (there is no expectation of finding all 6 million). In some countries, Yad Vashem has encountered resistance to opening national and local archives to allow experts to sift through records for names.
Efforts should be made at all events this year to have a survivor present personal testimony and talk about the importance for him/her of keeping the memory alive.
B’nai B’rith International through its Center for Jewish Identity and its World Center in Jerusalem is proud to be the North American sponsor of the program on behalf of Yad Vashem. B’nai B’rith sponsorship is made possible by the generous support of Kurt and Tessye (of blessed memory) Simon.
These community events are held in public locations such as parks, government buildings, and at synagogues and Jewish community centers and college and university campuses. We encourage communities to add the Unto Every Person program to Yom Hashoah observances.
Below you will find links to creative readings and other materials that can be used for the memorial observance, the names of the victims where they were born, where they died and their age at their death. Each one of these names represents a unique person. For many on the list, it is the only time their name will be said aloud as their entire family was murdered with them or the surviving family is now gone. We are the ones left to remember.
As we gather to remember the victims, we also recognize the urgency of gathering oral histories and names of those victims that have not been recorded in the archives of Yad Vashem. Directions and forms are available to assist with this process.
As in the past, we will be working in cooperation with the AEPi Jewish Fraternity for campus programming to link the Unto Every Person program to their annual Holocaust remembrance programming “Walk to Remember.”
We are available to assist you with your program. For further information contact cji@bnaibrith.org or call 212-490-3290.
Since 1989 on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, B'nai B'rith International has been the North American sponsor of "Unto Every Person, There Is a Name" ceremonies.
