{"id":612043,"date":"2026-04-18T08:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/612043\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:43:09","slug":"ritual-of-remembrance-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/612043\/","title":{"rendered":"Ritual of remembrance \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a designated spring morning for more than three decades, members of Winnipeg\u2019s Jewish community, representatives of other faith communities, high school students and local government officials have met near the Holocaust Memorial on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature to take turns reading aloud the names of men, women and children whose lives ended more than 80 years ago.<\/p>\n

The reading of the names is the main component of Unto Every Person There is a Name, a program organized and hosted by the League for Human Rights of B\u2019nai Brith Canada for Holocaust Remembrance Day. That day, which commemorates the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide, fell this year on April 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix million is a staggering number,\u201d says Ruth Ashrafi, B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s regional director for Manitoba. \u201cIt is hard to fully comprehend the scale of the killings. Reading the names of the individuals out loud, together with the location of their murder \u2014 and in the case of children their age of death \u2014 puts a human face on this number. \u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIKAELA
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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n

Judith Lavitt lights a candle at the Yom HaShoah annual Holocaust commemoration at the Manitoba Legislative Building, April 14.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event was chaired by Winnipegger Rob Berkowits, a second-generation Holocaust survivor who has been one of the name readers since the program\u2019s inception in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy reciting their names, we remember that each victim was an individual \u2014 a mother or father, a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a child, a friend, \u201c Berkowits explains. \u201cEach had hopes and dreams and, like all people, each clung to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnto Every Person There Is a Name,\u201d he adds, \u201cgives names back to those who were stripped of their identities before they were robbed of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The names that Berkowits recites in public each year include David, Chaia, Moishe, Shlome, Pearl, Rochel, Lazer, Bateu and Hantza, who were all members of his late father Alex\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Alex Berkowits was 13 years old when he was transferred with his parents and siblings into the ghetto in his hometown of Sighet, Romania in 1944. In the months that followed he endured vicious brutality, inhumane forced labour, death camps and death marches, before being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp, alongside his friend and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, in April 1945.<\/p>\n

Alex Berkowits was one of 130 Jewish orphans who were brought to Winnipeg after the war. That group of children also included John Hirsch, the late co-founder of the Manitoba Theatre Centre.<\/p>\n

They were the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

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One and a half million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust. Thanks to the local organization One More Candle, the identities of many of those children have been preserved and their names have been added to the roster of the names read aloud at the B\u2019nai Brith memorial event each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Judaism we are commanded to remember,\u201d Ashrafi says, \u201cnot only so that we won\u2019t forget but also so that we will do everything we can to prevent such an atrocity from happening again. With the passing of time, the memory of the Holocaust grows more distant. An annual commemoration ensures that we will not forget its horrors and its lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Berkowitz concurs that it is especially critical in this current day and age that the horrors of the Holocaust and the identity of its victims continue to be talked about and remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more recent surge in Jew hating and the need to combat it have highlighted for me the need for consistent vigilance and education about the Holocaust,\u201d he says. \u201cAs the world faces new challenges, initiatives such as Unto Every Person There is a Name remains a vital reminder of the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need for collective responsibility to protect and promote peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

swchisvin@gmail.com<\/p>\n

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