Wednesday, April 23, 7:00 pm

We’ll begin with reflections from John Lorinc, whose Hungarian Jewish family was protected by a stolen sign that read: ‘No Jews Live Here.’ His new book, by the same name, tells their story from pre-war Budapest through the 1956 Hungarian Revolution to post-war Toronto.

The prayers, poetry, and music of our Yom HaShoah service will move us to reflect upon questions brought to the forefront again.
Six Holy Blossom families, descendants of Holocaust survivors, will light six candles to honour the Six Million.

By their light, we will bear witness to Myrna Sandler’s own story of survival.

We send a special invitation to families with children, ages ten and older, as they will be the last generation to hear first-hand accounts from Holocaust survivors.

To join us online, please visit our livestream page

John Lorinc is a journalist and editor. He reports on urban affairs, politics, business, technology, and local history for a range of media, including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Walrus, Maclean’s, and Spacing, where he is Senior Editor. John is the author of three other books of non-fiction, including The New City (Penguin, 2006), and has coedited four other anthologies for Coach House Books: The Ward (2015), Subdivided (2016), Any Other Way (2017), and The Ward Uncovered (2018). John is the recipient of the 2019/2020 Atkinson Fellowship and the 2022 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy. He currently lives in Toronto. His recent interview on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5DtPl6PRBo

Myrna Sandler Born in 1927 in Lutsk, Poland, Myrna (Musia) Sandler and her family were forced out of their home and into the city’s ghetto in 1941. A Polish farmer, named Mr. Jarmoszko, hid them in a haystack from the fall of 1942 to the winter of 1943. The following year, a Czech farmer, named Mr. Cepek, hid them in the attic of his barn and in an underground bunker. This is how Myrna and her family survived the Holocaust. After three years in a German DP camp, they made their way to Canada in 1948. Myrna is a treasured member of our Holy Blossom Temple community.