SAVE THE DATE
May 6, 2024

5:30 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. program

 

  • Candlelighting ceremony with special prayers in memory of those killed in the Holocaust 

  • Featured speaker: Björn Krondorfer, director of the Martin-Springer Institute (MSI) at Northern Arizona University  

  • ‘Voices Silenced: Music from the Holocaust,’ a lecture-recital by Hannah Creviston and Baruch Meir, performing piano duets written by composers who were killed in the Holocaust

Featured speaker: Björn Krondorfer

Björn Krondorfer will share his story about finding out as an adult that his father was a German soldier at a slave labor camp in Poland.

Björn Krondorfer is director of the Martin-Springer Institute (MSI) at Northern Arizona University and Endowed Professor of Religious Studies. He is the author of “The Holocaust and Masculinities.” In 2002, he helped to edit and publish the survivor memoir by Edward Gastfriend, “My Father’s Testament: Memoir of a Jewish Teenager.” Among his many other works are “Reconciliation in Global Context” (2018), “Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism” (2009) and “Remembrance and Reconciliation” (1995). As director of the MSI, he organizes public and educational events related to the lessons of the Holocaust, including symposia, teacher trainings, lectures, student research projects and exhibits. 

 

Voices Silenced:
Music From the Holocaust

Voices Silenced, a lecture-recital of piano duets, features music by Erwin Schulhoff, Pal Budai and Leo Smit, three composers who were killed in the Holocaust.

Hannah Creviston, piano

Hannah Creviston is Clinical Associate Professor at Arizona State University, where she is Director of Piano Pedagogy and the ASU Community Music School, and Coordinator for Class Piano. Frequent workshop topics include Music Learning Theory, teaching music to children with special needs, the importance of movement in teaching rhythm and piano music by composers killed in the Holocaust. 

Prior to joining the ASU faculty in the fall of 2012, Creviston was on the faculty at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam.

As a collaborative pianist, she has performed in festivals and competitions throughout the United States and abroad, and she performs regularly in a duo with her husband, saxophonist Christopher Creviston. Together, they have recorded Snell Sessions and Columbia Sessions, both on the Albany Records label, Sunday Afternoon and Breaking available through CD Baby and Phoenix Rising on the Blue Griffin label.

Baruch Meir, piano

Baruch Meir is an Associate Professor of Piano at Arizona State University. He is a Bösendorfer Artist and the Founder, President and Artistic Director of the Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition.

Past Yom Hashoah commemorations 

April 17, 2023

Candlelighting ceremony

In this year’s candle-lighting ceremony, those lighting the candles included representatives from the City of Chandler and local faith leaders. Pictured, from left, are David and Peggy Schlesinger, members of the Bahai faith community; Dan Shkapich, president of the Chandler Arizona West Take of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and his wife Donna; Commander Zachary Cummard of the Chandler Police Department; Chandler City Manager Joshua Wright, an EVJCC board member; Iman Ahmad Salman of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community; and Holocaust survivor Dirk Van Leenen. Pastor Victor Hardy sang the National Anthem and Sammi Morris sang ‘Hatikvah.” 

Members of the local faith community, including Iman Ahmad Salman of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, lit candles in memory of the Six Million. 

Holocaust survivor and author Dirk Van Leenen shared his story of being a child in Holland during the Holocaust. In back is Karen Perna, Generations After coordinator.

Rabbi Michael Beyo, EVJCC CEO, spoke about the importance of effective Holocaust education. 

“Voices Silenced: Music from the Holocaust”

Professor Hannah Creviston presented a lecture-recital highlighting work by three composers who were killed in the Holocaust: Leo Smit, Laszlo Weiner and Viktor Ullman. The songs were performed by Hannah Creviston on piano, Nancy Buck on viola and Sabrina Hu on flute. 

Hannah Creviston, piano

Nancy Buck, viola

Sabrina Hu, flute

April 27, 2022

Candlelighting ceremony

Rabbi Michael Beyo, East Valley JCC CEO, and Holocaust survivor Bodo Schrader. 

Karen Perna and Barbara Burman, coordinators of the East Valley JCC’s Generations After group. 

Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan

Rich Kasper, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix

Niki Tapia of the City of Chandler

Robin Finlinson of JustServe and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chandler

Event photography courtesy of

Exhibit: “Lost Voices: Greek Jews and the Holocaust”

“Branded Degenerate: Voices Silenced”

Pianist Hannah Creviston, soprano Amanda DeMaris and saxophonist Christopher Creviston presented a lecture-recital highlighting work by those killed in the Holocaust. 

Sammi Morris led the group in “Hatikvah” during the ceremony. 

May 2019

Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig, author “Lonely Chameleon,” pictured with her daughter Cindy Katz.

“Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Bedzin Ghetto,” an exhibit  created by the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU, was on display. 

Presenters included Chandler Vice Mayor Terry Roe, right. 

The evening Yom Hashoah Commemoration ceremony included a candlelighting ceremony. Pictured is Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan.

Gerald Lamb and Melissa Cohen, representatives of the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU, presented a morning lecture and an afternoon educators’ workshop. There was also a screening of documentary “Shalom Italia.”