Shoah remembrance in song and silence

It began with the wailing of sirens and continued in the yearning strains of singer Ilan Kidron’s beautiful rendition of Vu Ahin Zol ikh Geyn?/Where Shall I Go?, a song written by a Polish Jew who perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

The message of “Never Again” was potently conveyed in front of a full house at City Recital Hall on May 5 for Sydney’s Yom Hashoah commemoration in many forms, reflecting this year’s theme of creative responses to the Holocaust.

The solemn power of 1300 people standing together in total silence during the lighting of memorial candles was only matched by their heartfelt singing, as one, of Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem.

Music and verse continued with Josh Weinberger singing The Partisan Song accompanied by pianist Paul Khodor, a youth movement choir featuring third-generation survivors sang Hebrew songs, and shudders went down spines when Rabbi Yehuda Niasoff sang memorial prayers in haunting, delicate tones.

Full report by Shane Desiatnik in the Australian Jewish News