Our 2017 Memorial Ceremony in Bardejov took place on Wednesday, June 28th. The event was held inside the Bardejov Holocaust Memorial to mark the 75th anniversary of the mass deportation of Jews from Bardejov in 1942. The event was attended by local citizens, city officials, and representatives from the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Slovakia (UZZNO) and H.E. Zvi Aviner Vapni, Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Slovak Republic.

The ceremony included significant local participation: musical performances throughout from children of the Music and Theater School of Bardejov including a children’s choir that sang the Hebrew song Yaldut Nishkachat (a Forgotten Childhood) and a local Christian group singing the Hebrew song “Heiveinu Shalom Alecheim”.

Other groups of students from the local high school participated in a reading as well as in the beautiful candle lighting ceremony. The winners of this year’s essay competition were also announced; visit our Essay Archive to read the top two essays.

The ceremony concluded with the signing of the contract between Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia (UZZNO). The restoration of the Beith Hamidrash is expected to begin sometime in early 2018.

After the Memorial ceremony, the crowd walked to the newly restored synagogue for a festive event. A beautiful performance by the Pressburger Klezmer Band from Batislava concluded the event which featured speeches by UZZNO representatives, city and government officials, Zvi Aviner Vapni, Israeli Ambassador to Slovakia, and Mr. Giora Solar.

To view photos of the event please see below, you may also click here to view our Facebook gallery.