Yom HaShoah 2012 events calendar

SUN | APRIL 15

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE FILM SERIES
The Museum of Tolerance screens award-winning Holocaust documentaries from its film division, Moriah Films, over the course of 10 days. Tonight features the 1982 Oscar winner for best documentary feature, “Genocide.” The series continues with “The Long Way Home” (April 16), “Liberation” (April 17), “Unlikely Heroes” (April 18), “Against the Tide” (April 19), “Echoes That Remain” (April 20), “I Have Never Forgotten You” (April 23) and “Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny” (April 24). Sun. Through April 24. 2:30 p.m. Free. Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Plaza, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 772-2498. museumoftolerance.com.

MON | APRIL 16

MEYER MEGDAL
The Holocaust survivor discusses his life in Poland, his experiences in Treblinka and Dachau, and his life in the United States after the war. Mon. 12:30-1:45 p.m. Free. CSUN Hillel, 17729 Plummer St., Northridge. (818) 886-5101. csun.hillel.org.

YEHUDA BAUER
Bauer, a pre-eminent Holocaust scholar and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s scholar-in-residence, will discuss the topics of genocide and the Holocaust during the institute’s inaugural Yom HaShoah lecture. Mon. 6-7:30 p.m. Free. University of Southern California, Taper Hall of Humanities, Room 101, 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles. (213) 740-2950. dornsife.usc.edu/vhi/events/3627.

WED | APRIL 18

MEMORIAL MARCH
An approximately one-mile march commemorates Yom HaShoah, beginning outside of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and ending at Beth Jacob Congregation. A discussion follows with Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University. Wed. 6:45 p.m. (memorial march), 7:30 p.m. (memorial program). Simon Wiesenthal Center, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles (march meeting place).  Beth Jacob Congregation, 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills (memorial program). (310) 278-1911. bethjacob.org.

REMEMBERING THE CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST
Join Rabbis Adam Kligfeld and Susan Leider, Cantor Magda Fishman and children from the Temple Beth Am community as they honor and remember children who perished in the Shoah. Stay for a screening of “Weapons of the Spirit,” a documentary that tells the story of a village in Nazi-occupied France, where 5,000 Jews were sheltered by 5,000 Christians, Wed. 7 p.m. Free. Temple Beth Am, 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 652-7353. tbala.org.

TEMPLE EMANUEL’S YOM HASHOAH COMMEMORATION
Rabbi Alicia Magal, spiritual leader for the Jewish community of Sedona and the Verde Valley in Arizona, returns to Temple Emanuel, where she served as program director from 1992 to 1998. Magal discusses the experiences of her mother, Nika Kohn Flessig, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, whose wartime experience she pieced together in the book “From Miracle to Miracle: A Story of Survival.” Wed. 7-9 p.m. Free. Temple Emanuel, Bess P. Maltz Center, 8844 Burton Way, Beverly Hills. (310) 288-3737. tebh.org.

FATHER PATRICK DESBOIS
The Catholic priest set out to find the truth behind millions of undocumented Jewish victims of the Holocaust in his book, “The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews,” and he lectures about his findings today at Sinai Temple. Wed. 7:30 p.m. Free. Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 474-1518. sinaitemple.org.

THU | APRIL 19

YOM HASHOAH COMMEMORATION
Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries and Café Europa, a Holocaust survivor group supported by Jewish Family Service, lead today’s commemoration event at its Hollywood Hills location. Sinai Temple’s Cantor Joseph Gole leads prayer and song during a service that features presentations by nine Café Europa members—survivors and members of the second generation –Sinai Akiba Academy and the Israeli Scouts as well as a candle lighting in memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Thu. 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries, Zarkheim Memorial, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angele. (866) 717-4624. mountsinaiparks.org.

“AS SEEN THROUGH THESE EYES”
Poet Maya Angelou narrates this documentary directed by Hilary Helstein, which highlights Holocaust victims’ resistance through art. Thu. 7:30 p.m. (film screening). Free. Adat Ari El, 12020 Burbank Blvd., Valley Village. (818) 766-9426. adatariel.com.

“NICKY’S FAMILY”
This docudrama about a rescue operation waged by Sir Nicholas Winton — the “British Schindler” — features interviews with the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel. A Q-and-A with filmmaker Matej Minac and Holocaust survivor Dave Lux, who was rescued by Winton, follows. Additionally, the Jewish Community Children’s Choir performs under the direction of Michelle Green Willner and Cantor Natan Baram. Thu. 7 p.m. Free. Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 772-2505. museumoftolerance.com.

FRI | APRIL 20

“FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT…”
Join Rabbi David Baron and the Beverly Hills congregation for a special Shabbat service that commemorates Yom HaShoah. Fri. 8 p.m. Free. Temple of the Arts, The Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (323) 658-9100. templeofthearts.org.

“PORCELAIN UNICORN”
A traumatic wartime encounter inspires a man later in director Keegan Wilcox’s film, which highlights Beth Shir Shalom’s Yom HaShoah service. Cellist Lynn Harrell and John Dixon, who composed the film’s score, perform an original piece written in collaboration with Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels. Wilcox, guest speakers and Holocaust survivors reflect on the Shoah. Refreshments served. Fri. 7 p.m. Free. Beth Shir Shalom, 1827 California Ave., Santa Monica. (310) 453-3361. bethshirshalom.org.

SUN | APRIL 22

LOS ANGELES MUSEUM OF THE HOLOCAUST’S YOM HASHOAH COMMEMORATION
Events will take place inside and outside of the museum and in Pan Pacific Amphitheater all day long. At 9:30 a.m., join an intergenerational walk with Holocaust survivors that turns Pan Pacific Park into a timeline, with survivors walking along a path pre-arranged with “Memory Markers”; at 10 a.m., children’s art activities begin and continue throughout the day; at 10:30 a.m., dancer Alexandra Shilling performs in the amphitheater and a survivor leads a talk inside the museum; at 11:30 a.m., the Third Wheel Musical Group performs in the amphitheater; at 12:30 p.m., opera singer Julia Adolphe performs; at 1 p.m., a survivor talk takes place in the museum, while Michelle Willner Choir performs in the amphitheater; at 2 p.m., a commemoration features keynote speaker Yehuda Bauer, a professor of Holocaust studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a performance by Theodore Bikel take place outside in the amphitheater; and at 4 p.m., singer Emiliano Preciado performs. Sun. 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, 100 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles. (323) 651-3704. lamoth.org.

MON | APRIL 23

CEDAR-SINAI’S 28TH ANNUAL YOM HASHOAH PROGRAM
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of “Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity” and “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust,” appears in person. Mon. Noon-1 p.m. Free. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Harvey Morse Auditorium, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. RSVP to (323) 866-6896. cedars-sinai.edu.

HONORING IRANIAN SCHINDLER
Fariborz Mokhtari discusses the life of Abdol Hossein Mokhtar, who saved the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust, during a presentation on his book, “In the Lion Shadow.” Mon. 6:30 p.m. Free. Nessah Synagogue, 142 S. Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills. (818) 908-0808. nessah.org.

“THE GHOSTS OF THE THIRD REICH”
Claudio Sobral’s documentary focused on the descendants of Nazis, who confront their family’s past and communicate their most profound feelings of guilt by inheritance. A post-screening Q-and-A features Sobral, Bernd Wollschlaeger, son of a Nazi take commander, and (via Skype) Samson Munn, founder of the Austrian Encounter, which arranges meetings between descendants of Nazi perpetrators and Holocaust victims. Mon. 7:30 p.m. $10 (MOT members, students, seniors), $12 (general). Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 772-2505. museumoftolerance.com/ghostsofthirdreich.