MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – A ceremony with decades of history in Marquette is back after a three year break due to the pandemic. The Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony was held at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church tonight.
Quaker, Methodist, Jewish, and Buddhist speakers shared stories, hymns, and readings in memoriam. The primary speaker, Peter Simenauer, was born into a Jewish family in 1935 that fled world war two Germany. Simenauer told his story and the impacts it still has on him today. Interfaith Forum Member Aaron Scholnik has been organizing the event for decades now, he said it means so much to continue creating space to revisit history.
“It’s a real honor and a blessing to be able to have somebody who even though he left Germany as a child,” Scholnik says, “he was still affected by it, and his family was affected by it.”
Despite the three year break, the pews of the church were packed full of people. Scholnik says he and the other organizers were excited to see the community was still engaged with the history and anticipating the return of the event.
“Because this has occurred so far before our memories,” Scholnik says, “we need to do this kind of ceremony. This makes it real, and if this was real then we know that we never want to do this again.”
The group felt it was important to continue to host the interfaith event, so people from all religions feel comfortable coming to reflect on the past.
