Chapel Haven Schleifer Center (CHSC) for the second consecutive year joined with the Yellow Lights Program to present “Flick the Switch,” marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Michael Dimenstein served as emcee
Michael Dimenstein, co-chair of the Jewish Historical Society of GNH, emceed the speaking program. The CHSC Judaism Club joined in the singing of “Hatikvah” and ASAT student Isaac performed on violin.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker; Ms. Fay Sheppard, a Second-Generation Survivor; Ms. Harriet Schleifer, a parent and board member who is past Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations; and friends across the New Haven community joined in a special ceremony to “flick the switch,” joining a list of landmark buildings across the region who lit their establishments up yellow to mark the international day of remembrance. The ceremony at CHSC ended with the courtyard being bathed in yellow light.
During the ceremony, Michael Storz, President of Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, shared a special announcement: Chapel Haven will be featured in the upcoming documentary The Yellow Light Project, directed by filmmaker Horacio Marquinez. The film explores the powerful connection between Holocaust remembrance and the ongoing fight for dignity and inclusion of people with disabilities.
Michael Dimenstein; Harriet Schleifer; Fay Sheppard; Doris Zelinsky; Michael Storz
“Each January 27, as yellow lights glow throughout our community, we remind ourselves of the dangers of hate towards others not the same as us,” observed Doris Zelinsky, President of Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory and the daughter of two Holocaust survivors.
Ms. Zelinsky continued, “In the 1930’s, the German government rounded up and murdered German citizens who were designated as ‘feeble minded.’ This was a dress rehearsal for the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were slaughtered simply because they were Jewish. Marking UN Holocaust Remembrance Day with our commemoration at Chapel Haven brings together two communities whose personal legacy is a powerful reminder: Never Forget!”
Fay Sheppard
Fay Sheppard shared, “Flick the Light is an even more important program and issue this year. Because as a child of holocaust survivors, I can hear the whispers of 1933. To me the wind is whispering through the trees of hate and discrimination and fear and divisiveness Bad behavior, bad language and meanness are more and more acceptable. I fear for what is to come, so I hope that the lights of today lend some enlightenment to a world that is facing age-old fears once again.”
CHSC joined 25 area organizations in the region to observe this international day of remembrance by “flicking” the switch.
About the event
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is a UN-recognized international memorial day on the 27th of January that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the genocide of one-third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, an attempt to implement its “final solution” to the Jewish question. The 27th of January was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
The Yellow Lights program started in 2022 in New York State, as “New York State Lights Up”. A volunteer committee felt the need to bring greater awareness to International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The volunteers reached out to landmarks in the state, requesting that they light up yellow on Jan 27 to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to shine a spotlight on the lessons of this atrocity.
In 2022, partnering landmarks like the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Niagara Falls, Penn Station, Grand Central, airport terminals, and prominent bridges throughout neighboring N.Y. joined in lighting up yellow.
In 2023, Governor Lamont added a Connecticut location, the Travelers Towers in Hartford. Active volunteers in greater New Haven have since added over 25 New Haven landmarks, as we join this effort to light up yellow. CHSC is proud to be one of those landmarks. Look for a billboard at the I-95/91 interchange celebrating this important milestone.
