By Reporter staff

The Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton will hold a Yom Hashoah commemoration on Thursday, May 2, at 6:30 pm, at Temple Israel, 4737 Deerfield Pl., Vestal. The event is co-sponsored by Beth David Synagogue, Hillel at Binghamton, Temple Israel and Temple Concord. It will begin with readings of psalms and poems at the outdoor Temple Israel Holocaust memorial. The event will then continue inside with testimony from survivor Samuel (Shmuel) Rind. Registration is not required, but encouraged, and can be made here or by contacting the Federation office at director@jfgb.org or 607-724-2332.

Rind was born in 1937 in a small town in Poland. His family moved to a camp in Pechora, Poland, after World War II began. When he was 6, the family moved to Rachney, a small labor camp in Ukraine, where his father disappeared. The family then escaped to a ghetto in Zhmerinka, a Ukrainian city, where they lived with relatives. By hiding, they managed to escape being killed by Nazis leaving the area as the war was ending. After first returning to Poland, Rind’s family moved to Bolivia in 1947 where he became an optician. Several years after attending a training program in the U.S., Rind moved to this country permanently in 1967. His mother was able to join him in the U.S. in 1992, where she lived until 2005. He currently lives in Rochester. 

“We are honored to host Holocaust survivor Sam Rind for this year’s Yom Hashoah program,” said Shelley Hubal, executive director of the Federation. “It is more important than ever for us all to bear witness to the testimony of survivors, ensuring that we will ‘never forget.’”