We are honored to have Liesel Shineberg as our keynote speaker for this year’s ceremony. Liesel was born in her family’s ancestral home of Aachen, Germany. For years, Aachen Jews led productive lives as German citizens. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the city became one of disbelief for its Jewish residents – and 5-year-old Liesel’s world began to change in ways unimaginable.

The program will also include the lighting of memorial candles, reciting the Memorial Prayer and Kaddish, the Governor’s Declaration and poems written by the 6th-12th grade winners of the Annual Holocaust Literary Contest.