Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair

Yom ha-Shoah Holocaust Memorial Day
Teacher’s Guide

Introduction

Forward

Yom ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, has been declared a provincial day of commemoration by the Ontario Government. In the year 2000, Yom ha-Shoah falls on May 2^nd, but the date will vary from year to year because it is determined by the lunar calendar. This Teacher’s Guide has been designed to help educators understand the significance of Holocaust Memorial Day, and to provide resources to assist in designing a program for individual classrooms and schools to commemorate this important day.

The nature of a Yom ha-Shoah program will vary from class to class and from school to school.

Some teachers may prefer a short service in their classroom while others might choose to hold a more formal ceremony in the auditorium. When a memorial service or assembly is planned, teachers and pupils are encouraged to prepare their own material, as well as to make use of some of the suggestions in this guide.

Some schools may wish to invite a local survivor or local community leader as a guest speaker. In addition to the resources in this guide, your local B’nai Brith office can be contacted for assistance.

This guide addresses the following subjects:

• The Act proclaiming Holocaust Memorial Day
• Information on the Jewish calendar and dates for Yom ha-Shoah for the next 10 years
• Background historical information on the Holocaust; commemorative programs with suggested activities; background readings
• Print, audiovisual and internet resources; and brief notes on the League for Human Rights and its "Holocaust and Hope" Program.

The need to educate our students about the Holocaust, and for all of us to learn the lessons from that horrific chapter of our history, is a crucial one. Education is our number one tool against the ravages of racism, bigotry and discrimination in all its forms.

We look forward to continuing to work together with you to further Holocaust education and remembrance in the context of anti-racist education in Canada, in the hope that in the memory of the victims we will strengthen the struggle against antisemitism, racism and hate in Canada and worldwide.

Rochelle Wilner
Senior Vice-President, B’nai Brith Canada
Toronto, 2001

Yom ha-Shoah — Holocaust Memorial Day — is the only provincially recognized commemorative day that doesn't fall on the same date each year. This is because it falls according to the Jewish calendar. As The Multifaith Calendar explains:

The Jewish calendar has both lunar and solar aspects. Basically a lunar calendar, it is periodically adjusted to the solar year. Since the solar year exceeds the lunar year by approximately 11¼ days, one month is added to the cycle of 12 lunar months (the extra month, named Adar II, follows the sixth month, Adar) approximately once every three years (or 7 months in 19 years). Thus the Jewish common year has from 353 to 355 days, and the leap year (which has 13 months) 383 to 385 days.

Each month begins with the appearance of the new moon and has either 29 or 30 days. The annual cycle of festivals begins with the month of Nisan (March or April of the Gregorian calendar), Pesach begins the first festival of the year.

However, years are calculated from the creation of the world, which, according to tradition, took place on the new moon of Tishri, the autumnal new moon, in 3761 BCE.* Thus the Jewish New Year occurs in September or October of the Gregorian calendar.

Jewish holidays characteristically celebrate historical events of importance to the Jewish people. The major traditional festivals and fasts originated in biblical times, but holidays can arise whenever a momentous event requires such a response. Yom ha-Shoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — was instituted on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, to memorialize the tragedy which befell the Jewish people during the Second World War. Since the Jewish religious day runs from sunset to sunset rather than from midnight to midnight, festivals normally begin on the evenings prior to the dates given in the calendar.

For more information on the Jewish Holidays visit:

http://www.bnaibrith.org/caln.html

on the Jewish Calendar visit:

http://www.rtlsoft.com/hebrew/calendar/about.html

on the Multifaith Calendar contact:

cpander@netshop.net

*Rather than B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini or Year of Our Lord), a more inclusive terminology is B.C.E. (Before The Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era).

2001 - 2010 Yom ha-Shoah Holocaust Rememrance Day

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