Memphis Jewish Federation’s 60th annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration will be held Thursday, April 28, 2022, at 6:30 P.M. in-person in the Memphis Jewish Community Center Belz Social Hall, or via Zoom and Facebook Live. Advance registration is required for both in-person and Zoom attendance, and can be found at www.jcpmemphis.org/yomhashoah. Follow the Jewish Community Partners Facebook page to join via Live.
For health and safety, in-person seating at the MJCC is highly limited and requires registration on a first come-first serve basis. In-person attendees are asked to provide proof of COVID vaccination when registering. Registered attendees with special needs may also register for complimentary valet parking.
Margo Gruen, Chair of Federation’s Holocaust Memorial Committee, is honored to announce the keynote speaker is Elisha Wiesel, human rights advocate and activist and second generation son of Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and celebrated memoirist Elie Wiesel.
“The committee is thrilled to host Elisha Wiesel as our keynote speaker and has planned this hybrid Yom HaShoah program to allow as many people to attend as possible, with a choice to participate in the way that makes them most comfortable,” said Gruen. “After two years of completely virtual events, many will be able to attend in person, while the internet allows the Memphis Jewish community to come together in spirit from the safety of our homes.”
Elisha Wiesel will be “in conversation” with Rabbi Abe Schacter-Gampel of Memphis Jewish Home & Rehab (MJHR). Though Wiesel and Rabbi Schacter-Gampel have only recently been in communication, the two share a fascinating connection. Rabbi Schacter-Gampel is the grandson of Rabbi Herschel Schacter, the first U. S. Army Chaplain to participate in the liberation of the Buchenwald death camp, where Elisha’s then 16-year-old father, Elie, was among the survivors.
“The idea that my grandfather was at Buchenwald, and Elie Wiesel was there, and to think that now that I’ll be in conversation with his son Elisha gives me goosebumps,” said Rabbi Schacter-Gampel. “We’re brought together through this shared memory of the Holocaust and through this shared experience of what it’s like to navigate our own lives as the descendants of people who were such a big deal. We’ve emailed but I’ve never met him before, and yet I feel in some ways we know each other in some kind of deep, spiritual way because our recent ancestors were together at a very challenging time in their lives.”
Raised in New York City and suburban New Jersey by Marion and Elie Wiesel, Elisha attended Yale University where he graduated with a degree in computer science. After spending some time doing basic military training in Israel, he joined Goldman-Sachs in 1994. In 2017, he became Goldman’s Chief Information Officer, overseeing Engineering.
Since retiring from a twenty-five year career at Goldman Sachs at the end of 2019, he served in 2020 as one of the lead technologists in Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. In his recent board position at Good Shepherd Services, Elisha raised millions of dollars for New York’s neediest by convening “Midnight Madness”, where hundreds of finance professionals stayed up all night solving elaborate puzzles on the city streets. He is currently on the board of Zionness, a coalition of Jewish activists and allies who self-describe as “unabashedly progressive and unapologetically Zionist.”
After his father’s passing in 2016, Wiesel realized the extent to which his father’s voice was missed in world conversation. Today, he shares his father’s message to continue his legacy of standing up for persecuted and marginalized communities, including speaking out on behalf of Syrian refugees, the Uyghurs in China, the LGBTQ community and the children of immigrants impacted by DACA.
Rabbi Abe Schacter-Gampel grew up in New York City. He studied at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and Mechon Hadar and was ordained form Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School. He went on to complete Clinical Pastoral Education at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare. Rabbi Schacter-Gampel is the first board-certified Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Care at MJHR, and serves as a Rabbi for the Hospice of Hope.
Memphis Jewish Federation’s annual Yom HaShoah honors Holocaust survivors living among us, pays tribute to those we have lost, and transmits the legacy of the Holocaust to the next generation. This year’s program will include the traditional candlelighting ceremony and memorial prayers. Community cantors and the Temple Israel Teen Team will participate and the closing benediction will be offered by Temple Israel’s Rabbi Micah Greenstein.
The annual observance is coordinated and hosted by Memphis Jewish Federation’s Holocaust Memorial Committee. It is supported by Anshei Sphard-Beth El Emeth Congregation, Baron Hirsch Congregation, Beth Sholom Synagogue, Chabad Lubavitch of TN, Facing History & Ourselves, Memphis Jewish Community Center, Or Chadash Conservative Synagogue, Temple Israel, and Young Israel of Memphis.
For more information about the program, please contact Lorraine Wolf at Memphis Jewish Federation 901.767.7100 or at lwolf@jcpmemphis.org.