MARQUETTE, Mich.—The annual Holocaust Memorial Service, sponsored jointly by the Marquette Interfaith Forum and Temple Beth Sholom, will be held on Sunday, April 7. It coincides with Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. The service begins at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Ridge Street in Marquette and will be followed by a community discussion.  

Author Lev Raphael, the son of Holocaust survivors, will deliver the keynote address titled “Healing Hatred.” He has given hundreds of awareness-raising speeches in the United States and Germany at the invitation of both the U.S. State Department and the German government. Members of multiple faith groups in the Marquette area will present prayers and songs commemorating the Holocaust and other subsequent genocides that continue to occur. The Marquette Male Chorus and the Gwinn High School Chorale will also perform.

Raphael will visit Northern Michigan University the following day to present his memoir, “My Germany,” and lead a discussion on the issues facing the second generation of survivors. This event begins at 7 p.m. in the University Center’s Erie Room.

            “The Holocaust is unique as the most horrific genocide imaginable in the modern industrial world,” said Carol Strauss, NMU modern languages and literatures professor. “Sadly though, the cry, ‘Never again’ is oft quoted to remind us to be on guard to prevent the conditions that would allow a Holocaust to be repeated. Genocides continue to take place in our world today. Clearly we need continual reminders of the unspeakable horrors that humans are capable of inflicting.”

            Raphael has published a series of historically based mystery novels, as well as nonfictional works on the shame gay and lesbian men and women face in their lives. His visit is co-sponsored by Northern Michigan University, Temple Beth Sholom and the Marquette Interfaith Forum.