Holocaust Memorial Ceremony is May 8 in Skokie

SKOKIE, IL - Chicagoland’s 71st annual Holocaust memorial observance will be at the Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob Synagogue at 8825 East Prairie Road in Skokie on May 8. Children and grandchildren of local Holocaust survivors are expected to participate in what is usually the largest Holocaust memorial ceremony in the Midwest.

"71 years after the liberation of the concentration camps, we face a world of hatred and injustice against the Jewish people," said Charles Lipshitz, president of Sheérit HaPleitah of Metropolitan Chicago, the group that has organized the event every year since 1945. "Europe, especially, claims it also suffered under Nazism in World War II, yet there still are nearly daily attacks there against Jews and Jewish institutions.”

The Jewish United Fund will co-sponsor the event. Skokie was picked due to its historical significance, specifically when the village worked with Jewish groups in preventing Nazis from holding a rally in the village in 1978.

The ceremony, set to begin at 1:30 p.m., will be highlighted by a candle-lighting ceremony that will honor the six million Jewish victims who perished in the Holocaust.