NEVER AGAIN! "The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed."
Historian Stephen Ambrose
NEVER AGAIN! "To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened -- a denial of fact that is baseless and ignorant and hateful."
President Barack Obama
NEVER AGAIN! "To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."
Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel
NEVER AGAIN! "It is deeply shocking and incomprehensible to me that despite volumes of documentation and living witnesses who can attest to the horrors of the Holocaust, there are still those who would deny it."
U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D-Colorado)
NEVER AGAIN! "I made the visit [to Buchenwald, April 12, 1945] deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'"
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
NEVER AGAIN! "Not only are we responsible for the memories of the dead, we are also responsible for what we are doing with those memories... For the dead and the living we must bear witness."
Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel
NEVER AGAIN! "When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Another will say, 'I built houses.' But I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'"
Simon Wiesenthal
History of the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program
Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed internationally on the 27th day of Nissan, the date in the Hebrew calendar that marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. When the actual date of Yom HaShoah falls on a Friday, the State of Israel observes Yom HaShoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday (as it does in 2010), Yom HaShoah is observed on the following Monday. Thus, we will observe Yom HaShoah on April 11-12, 2010; 27-28 Nissan 5770.
The Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle is modeled after the traditional Jewish memorial candle that burns for 24 hours during periods of mourning and on the anniversary of the death of a family member. The program has expanded well beyond FJMC to Men of Reform Judaism (MRJ), Women's League of Conservative Judaism (WLCJ), United Synagogue (USCJ), United Synagogue Youth (USY); Reform, Reconstructionist, and Orthodox congregations; Jewish Community Centers, Holocaust Memorial Centers; church groups, and others. It continues to grow as a central component of community-wide Holocaust commemoration programs that memorialize the victims of the Shoah.
USY "From Darkness Into Light" Scholarship
In 1998, FJMC created the "From Darkness into Light" scholarship program whereby USY (United Synagogue Youth) members can receive scholarships for USY's Eastern Europe/Israel Pilgrimage and Israel Pilgrimage/Poland Seminar programs. READ MORE
Yom HaShoah Programming
For the past 22 years, the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program has built an awareness of the Holocaust and fostered observance of Yom HaShoah through the distribution of the candles. But the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program is not just a matter of an organization buying lots of candles and giving them out. It is within the context of a broad Holocaust commemoration program wherein yellow candles are distributed as a central component that education about the Shoah and memorialization of the six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis and their allies resonates.
The Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program reaches out to unaffiliated Jews who by definition are connected to the Shoah. They are connected through their ancestors and families who perished and/or by their broader association as members of the Jewish people. Yet they have no easy way of expressing that connection. The Nazis and their allies made no distinction between affiliated and non-affiliated Jews.
The Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program reaches out to all peoples, encompassing a message of hope and meaning. The Nazis and their allies killed millions of non-Jews for, among other reasons, their nationalities, their physical disabilities, their sexual orientation, and for simply aiding Jews. National tragedies and genocides continue today and afflict many communities. As expressed by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, California, "Genocide is not private property. It is and it belongs to the public domain."
The Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program reaches out to the present and the future. Through the mitzvah of Tikun Olam - Repairing the World - we remember the past and the victims of the Holocaust to ensure, Never Again!
Synagogue Men's Clubs & Brotherhoods, USY & BBYO chapters, community centers & churches, local schools & college Hillels, all organizations can commemorate Yom HaShoah and conduct a broad program to educate and to expand the numbers of individuals and families who will light Yellow Candles the evening of April 11, 2010. Ideas for such programs can be drawn from those which received FJMC Torch Awards as "Best Holocaust Remembrance Program" from 1991 – 2005 and in 2005-2009. To download the detailed Torch Award submissions for particular programs, go to the Yom HaShoah / Yellow Candle Resource Page.
The central program for 2010 for all organizations participating in the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candles Program is the development of "Twinning Memorial Programs." Each organization will "twin" with a town whose Jewish community was brutally destroyed during the Holocaust whose total population mirrors that of the organization or of the larger surrounding community which the organization will encourage to participate with it. A suggested list of such towns can be found via the links found at the Yom HaShoah link page. Candles are availble either for purchase in bulk and for direct shipment to its members so that everyone can light his or her own yellow candle. [On line purchase to be available shortly!]
Learning about the community and lives destroyed, and by lighting a Yellow Candle (or two) for every murdered individual, the organization's members and those joining from the broader community, Jew & non-Jew, will be able to remember and to memorialize each person for whom no one remains to say Kaddish – the prayer for the dead.
Raising Funds Through the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candles Program
Most organizations that implement the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle™ Program offer their members the opportunity to make a donation upon receipt of the candle. This is consistent with the Jewish tradition of giving tzedakah in memory of a departed person at the time of the yahrzeit (the anniversary of the individual's death).
By asking for a donation of only $18 per candle (the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word chai, or "life"), an organization requires a return of only 16% in order to cover the initial costs of purchasing and distributing the yellow candles! All monies raised above that level of return results in a "net profit" to the organization which it can use to fund its Holocaust education programs and related activities. To see how one men's club member and his group used the Yellow Candle program and the important issues it raised with his family, download 'Yellow Candles Raise Family Questions."
By establishing and conducting a Holocaust commemoration program to commemorate the Holocaust and to memorialize its victims, any organization generates enthusiasm for the Yellow Candle and a higher rate of return of contributions.
Order Information
Yellow Candles Order Hotline:
TEL (800) 391-7293 (after 9AM MST) • FAX (602) 368-6357
Yellow Candles Mailing Address:
FJMC Yellow Candles, P.O. Box 12582, Scottsdale, AZ 85267
BULK ORDER DEADLINE: MARCH 10, 2010
DIRECT SHIP ORDER DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2010
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