Perhaps last week you noticed the “Pollution Solutions” display in the EMU Amphitheater. You almost couldn’t have missed the front-page article about it in the Emerald on May 3. But you might have missed the students reading off the names of victims that were murdered in concentration camps during the holocaust.
May 2 was National Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah. Beginning a week of events to remember the holocaust, the Jewish Student Union held a 24-hour reading of the names of Jews who were murdered in the holocaust. The reading was conducted by 144 volunteers who read for 10 minutes each from 7 p.m. May 1 to 7 p.m. May 2. There are so many names that since the beginning of this University event 10 years ago, the volunteers have yet to complete one volume of a three volume set of names.
“Each year they get through about one [section] in the volume,” Jewish Student Union co-director Jennifer Hoenignberg said. Not only is this done at the University, but names are being read at similar ceremonies worldwide. To add to the magnitude of this event is the sobering knowledge that the book only includes names of Jews who were murdered, not the other ethnic victims of the holocaust.
When I saw that this important tradition was being overshadowed by fancy electric doodads, I was flabbergasted. Saving the earth is really important, but as a semi-practicing member of the Jewish community, the ceremony of reading the names takes precedence. On behalf of my people, I was determined to extract divine justice. Translation: I wanted to point the finger.
To find the culprit, I went and talked with Virginia Johnson, director of University Scheduling and Services, about why there were two events scheduled on the same day. She informed me that the amphitheater reservations go on a first-come first-serve basis, and the JSU, the group organizing the event, did reserve the space first. The JSU was consulted about letting Pollution Solutions present on the same day, and it gave permission to let the other display go at the same time. Why would the JSU let its own event be overshadowed?
As it turns out, there wasn’t much of an option. Hoenignberg, who helped organize the reading of names, informed me that Pollution Solutions was a national tour and that May 2 was the only day that it could have hosted its display. Hoenignberg agreed to share the space as long as there was no music or food.
Although there wasn’t any of that, those of you who saw the display know that it was pretty large. On top of a number of tent booths, the display included a car. Hoenignberg said perhaps by looking at the pollution displays more people noticed the Yom HaShoah ceremony, but I think that it detracted more than it gave.
My search left me with nowhere to place the blame, just a general sense of disappointment. This ceremony was a very important one and it is a shame that it wasn’t able to have the undivided attention of the University. We need to keep the memory of the holocaust alive through such events, otherwise it will just disappear into history. In another couple decades the people who actually did survive the holocaust will be dead and the responsibility of preserving their memory will be all ours. It’s good to see that people are already starting to make the memory last.
The saddest thing to me is that I’m sure there are plenty of people who didn’t notice the names being read. Maybe there would have been more attention if the JSU event had followed the example of the Lipton Brisk Iced Tea display that same week and accompanied the readings with a big blow-up balloon of a gas chamber.