Rav Stephen Exler led the participants, Holocaust survivors, their children and grandchildren in singing the Partisan Song at the conclusion at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale’s annual Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance.

All donned a yellow Jewish star, remembering and recreating what the Nazis forced Jews to wear, and potato peelings were offered to enable people participating in the Holocaust seder to feel the deprivation and starvation imposed on those imprisoned and starved by the Nazis.

The six memorial yahrzeit candles represented the Six Million Jews murdered in the Holocaust The last words of the Partisan Song, sung with defiance, are “We are still here!”

By Robert Kalfus