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info@bnaibrith.org

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Unto Every Person There Is A Name

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.


Unto Every Person There is a Name 2016:

The Unto Every Person There is a Name commemoration will be held on Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes Remembrance Day observed this year on May 5, 2016.

The theme announced by the international committee is: 

“Everything is Forbidden to Us, and Yet We Do Everything: The Struggle to Maintain the Human Spirit during the Holocaust”
Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day
5 May 2016 – 27 Nissan 5776

> Letter from the International Committee
President Reuven Rivlin’s Message


Materials are provided by Yad Vashem and the committee. B’nai B’rith has been the North American Sponsor of this program since 1989. B’nai B’rith is represented by Alan Schneider, Director of the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem on the international committee.

The materials will be posted on B’nai B’rith’s website and will be available from the B’nai B’rith Center for Jewish Identity. If you would like to bring this program to your community or bring the reading of names of the victims to an existing commemoration, we can assist with resource materials.

We can also provide a yellow sticker that features a star of David and the worlds Never Forget the 6,000,000.

We are also pleased to advise that once again we will provide program assistance to AEPi Fraternity Chapters that will bring the Unto program to their campus in conjunction with their We Walk to Remember Project. We provide materials for their program and would like to invite B’nai B’rith leaders to participate in the program on campus.

Please contact Rhonda Love for more information at cji@bnaibrith.org.


About the Program

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. This is also an opportunity to connect the second and third generation of survivors to your programs.

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.


Programmatic Materials


Contact Us

For more information about this project, contact the Center for Jewish Identity, 801 Second Avenue, 14th floor, New York, NY 10017, telephone 212-490-3290, fax 212-687-3429, email cji@bnaibrith.org.



Past Programs:


News Coverage:

Herald-Dispatch – Huntington, W. Va.

During the ending service, congregation member Herman Glaser, whose own father survived the Holocaust but who lost his first wife and three children, introduced the reading of the “El Malei Rachamim,” a poem generally chanted at funeral services and on the anniversary of their deaths.

“This is for those who died and for the many whom left no one behind to say these words,” Glaser said before fellow member David Glick, chanted the prayer.

Northern Illinois Univ.:

Chad Harris, Alpha Epsilon Pi president and junior business management major, said the silence of the 12 participants was meant to reflect the somber mood of the event.

“Any chance we get to honor the fallen Holocaust victims, we do,” Harris said.

The Suburban, Quebec

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of Côte St. Luc’s Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Synagogue said “never again” is an important lesson globally and locally.

“We must vow ‘never again’ to the politics of intolerance, to the simple abridgment of rights with no purpose. This is not a political point. It’s a history lesson.”