SUMTER, S.C. — The Sumter community is honoring those lost during the Holocaust. Roughly six million Jewish people were killed between 1933 and 1945 in Europe. Now decades later, Sumter residents are gathering to light candles in honor of those who died.
"It’s remembrance for everything that happened during the Holocaust," Sumter resident Carolyne Feldman explains about Yom Hashoah.
"Which means the day of calamity," Temple Sinai Jewish History Center Site Manager Diana Roof explains. "So we are celebrating that today so everybody can light a candle in memory of somebody who had been killed in the Holocaust."
"The Jewish people have a saying that goes 'never again' and if we don’t take the time to remember history and to understand our history and not just let the history go or let it be brushed away and forgotten as something nasty or unpleasant or something we don’t really want to remember…if we do that, it will happen again," Feldman shares. "Maybe not to the Jews, but maybe to another minority group."
It’s not just Sumter’s Jewish community coming together, but people of other religions like Wanda Hill, a Southern Baptist who came from Georgetown to attend this annual event.
"It’s been on my bucket list for three years," Hill says about the lighting. "To remember the victims but also to honor the people who are giving their money, their resources and their time to provide a museum, to provide literature, to educate the next people."
Brenda Libner says even though she’s Roman Catholic, she’s trying to learn more about the Jewish culture.
"I think it proves that we can all live together despite whether it be our faith or color or age differences, that we can cherish and gather wonderful things from other faiths and religions and other people and that we should be able to live together in harmony and in peace," Libner shares.
This idea and celebration from people of all different faiths making Jewish people like Roof feel supported by her community.
"You’re not standing alone off by yourself, you’re standing with other people, and you can recognize that they’re not quite like you, but that’s okay. We’re all here together," Roof tells me. "We’re all God’s people."
Feldman tells me while the Jewish community is Sumter is alive, she wishes it was bigger.
"I wish there were ore of us, you know fellowship grows often with numbers and in Judaism fellowship is very important," Feldman explains.
That fellowship was present throughout the candle-lighting, which made some emotional.
"It was very moving. I was surprised by that — how much it touched not only my mind, but my heart too," Libner explains. "Tears came to my eyes and I was thinking about all the lost families and friends that we over here in America never got to know or to learn about and I felt very sad about that. Losing all of those thousands of people…it was very moving for me."
The Jewish History Center is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.