Yom HaShoah Ceremony Draws 600 Attendees to Pan Pacific Park

Holocaust Museum LA held its 32nd annual Yom HaShoah Day commemoration ceremony at Pan Pacific Park, drawing an estimated 600 community members to an afternoon dedicated to Holocaust remembrance. 

“Today we gather not only to mourn the six million Jewish souls who perished in the Holocaust, but also to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring such atrocities never, ever happen again,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during the May 5 event. “As your mayor, I stand firmly against antisemitism and any form of hatred or discrimination.”

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., an array of community leaders — including Holocaust Museum LA Board Chair Guy Lipa and CEO Beth Kean, City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Wilshire Boulevard Temple Senior Rabbi Steve Leder and Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles Israel Bachar — addressed the crowd on the importance of commemorating the Shoah while also combating antisemitism post-Oct. 7.

“So much has happened in the year since we last gathered to mark this day,” Yaroslavsky, whose district includes a large Jewish population, said.  “And in so many ways the world feels entirely different in one short year. Our collective pain over the horrors from Oct. 7 has only grown in the seven months since.”

The Oct. 7 attack and the subsequent sharp rise in antisemitism nationwide hung like a shadow over an already-somber event. At the park, which is adjacent to the museum, there was a strong security presence. Seated under the large canopy where the gathering was held, several attendees wore clothing with messages calling for the release of the hostages from Gaza. According to Leder, one of the program’s speakers, Hamas’ attack impacted approximately 2,500 Holocaust survivors, including nearly 1,900 who were evacuated from their homes in Israel after Oct. 7.

Israeli American actor Mike Burstyn emceed the gathering, which included live music performed by L.A. Opera Maestro James Conlon, accompanied by several violinists and cellists from the Colburn School.

Though the population of Shoah survivors is rapidly dwindling with the passage of time, several of them were in attendance and participated in lighting memorial candles for the approximately six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. 

Among the survivors were Dr. George Berci, a 103-year-old Hungarian-born survivor who currently serves as a professor emeritus at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and pioneered a minimally invasive form of surgery; 96-year-old Mary Bauer, who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Ravensbrück concentration camps; and Eva Nathanson, who was born in Budapest in 1941 and settled here after the war. 

A theme of the event was the relationship between generations, as former city controller Ron Galperin, the child of a survivor, led the crowd in the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, and as Amy Conroy, the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, spoke about her experiences growing up in a family of survivors.

Additional community leaders who turned out included L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and State Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur. Neither is Jewish, but the two have been outspoken supporters of the Jewish community in the aftermath of Oct. 7. Former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and Wilshire Boulevard Temple Rabbi Susan Nanus also attended. 

The event marked the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. From May 15 to July 9, 1944, Hungary’s police force, under the guidance of the Nazis, facilitated the systematic deportation of approximately 400,000 Jews. Most were sent to Auschwitz. 

Yom HaShoah began the evening of May 5.