For the first time ever, the JFCS Holocaust Center will commemorate Yom HaShoah with virtual events on April 20-21.

The Holocaust Remembrance Day event on April 20 will feature 16 clergy from San Francisco synagogues and organizations, with a keynote address by S.F.-based Israeli Consul General Shlomi Kofman. German Consul General Hans-Ulrich Südbeck and state Sen. Scott Wiener plan to attend.

The program will start at 4 p.m. with a “Reading of the Names,” where the names of people who perished in the Holocaust are read aloud. You can submit a name of a loved one here, by emailing [email protected] or by calling (415) 449-1213. The program will continue from 6 to 7 p.m. with songs and prayers.

On April 21, the Holocaust Center will present a day of virtual learning, including talks by survivors, relatives of survivors and scholars, including historian Fred Rosenbaum and Hamaqom | The Place’s Chief Program Officer Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan and Associate Director Jason Harris.

“Our priority [is] ensuring that these important traditions for the Jewish community continue,” said Morgan Blum Schneider, director of the Holocaust Center, operated by Jewish Family and Children’s Services.

Blum Schneider said she and her team spent weeks researching the right platform to host the event. They ultimately decided on Switcher Studio, an alternative to Zoom that is harder for unwelcome guests to access, she said, in order to avoid Zoombombing.

To register for the April 20 event, click here. For the April 21 event, click here. Both are free.