Yom HaShoa, Six White Candles

A brief write-up about our Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at the Jewish Community Center, Mumbai, India.

As Yom Hashoah, Holocaust remembrance day, commenced on the evening of March 24th 2006, India’s Jewish community remembered the six million at a ceremony at the EPJCC hosted by JDC and the Israeli Consulate General in Mumbai.


Mumbai’s Jewish community, alongside diplomatic representatives from Israel, the United States, Poland, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Romania and the Netherlands, heard 15 Indian Jewish youth relate the experiences of individual Jews who died or survived the Nazi excesses. Over 140 individuals were present at the ceremony, including representatives of nearly all Mumbai and Thane synagogues.


The evening included readings of poetry composed during the Holocaust, prayers for remembrance, and the lighting of six candles to commemorate the loss of six million Jewish lives. Participants also viewed “Hope and Beyond”, a photo exhibition showcasing the work of the AJDC in the years during and following the Shoah Holocaust. Following the ceremony, a contemporary film about the Holocaust, The Devil’s Arithmetic, was screened.


Jonathan Solomon, one of the community leaders who participated in the ceremony, was deeply moved by the event and the mood among the participants. “For so long, Indian Jews – who have never known persecution – felt disconnected from the rest of the Jewish world. At this ceremony, though, we joined Jews around the world and shared their agony.”