The JFCS Holocaust Center, the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM),  Lehrhaus Judaica, and the Jewish Community Relations Council--in collaboration with San Francisco synagogues, schools, and other community organizations--are hosting a Holocaust Day of Remembrance on May 1, 2011, at the CJM, 736 Mission St., San Francisco. Admission is free, and people of all ages are invited to join in the all-day commemorations:

11:00 am - 4:00 pm: Family programs, educator workshops, group tours, teen activities, and the special exhibit "Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?" on loan from the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. The CJM will offer hourly public tours of the exhbit; the 3:00 pm tour is geared toward a teen audience. Tours have a limited capacity. Check in with the museum's visitor services if you are interested in attending a tour.

11:15 am - 1:45pm: Collaboration with the Past, a film. Painter and sculptor Rita Blitt presents the world premiere of her meditative, multimedia work, featuring the music of composer Pavel Haas, who died at Auschwitz. The nine-minute film will screen continuously. A conversation with the artist will take place 2:00 - 3:00 pm. During her rich career, Blitt has had 70 solo exhibitions. Her works have been shown and installed throughout the world. 

12:30 - 2:30 pm: Art as a Tool of Survival: a workshop for educators which explores the role that music, theater, and art played during the Holocaust. Presented by Morgan Blum, Director of Education, JFCS Holocaust Center, and Devra Aarons, Executive Director, Contra Costa Midrasha. Free, but reservations required. RSVP to schools@thecjm.org. See pdf.

1:00 - 3:00 pm: Drop-in art-making for kids and families. Create tissue-paper collages inspired by the poems written by children who were at the Terezin camp during World War II. 

3:00 - 5:00 pm: Art Buffs: Expression as Existence, a teen workshop co-facilitated by youth leaders from the CJM and Youth Speaks and inspired by the painter Charlotte Salomon.

4:00 - 5:00 pm: Reading of the names of those who perished in the Holocaust--gathered from Bay Area survivors and read by youth. (If you would like your loved ones who perished during the Holocaust included in the recitation, email their names and pronunciations to JessicaM@jfcs.org.) 

5:00 - 6:00 pm: Service of remembrance in the museum's Goldman Hall with participation of San Francisco congregations, rabbis, cantors, musicians, and youth (including the winner of the Morris Weiss Scholarship Award). The following clergy will be participating in the service, along with youth from the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship program, the Next Chapter Project, and volunteers from the general community:

Cantor Roslyn Barak, Congregation Emanu-El
Cantor Sharon Bernstein, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
Rabbi Micah Hyman, Congregation Beth Sholom
Rabbi Jonathan Jaffe, Congregation Emanu-El
Rabbi Moshe Levin, Congregation Ner Tamid
Rabbi Mark Melamut Congregation B’nai Emunah
Rabbi Katie Mizrachi, Or Shalom Jewish Community
Rabbi Gedalia Potash, Chabad of Noe Valley
Rabbi Lawrence W. Raphael, PhD, Congregation Sherith Israel
Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller, Congregation Sherith Israel

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