Submission #290 by Or Tzion Men's Club - Scottsdale, AZ (1074)

I have read the General Guidelines, "Nuts and Bolts" and Program Advanced Planning (Excel Spreadsheet) Documents
Club Name
Or Tzion Men's Club - Scottsdale, AZ (1074)
Expanding Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle Program To Non-Jewish Organizations
Club Representative
Person completing form
Robert
Kalish
Club President at time of Convention
Tyler
Trier
Club President Now
Tyler
Trier
Yom HaShoah / Yellow Candle

Page 1

We believe that it is essential that the lessons of the Holocaust be learned by all of humanity so that, hopefully, such atrocities will never again happen to any people. With this goal in mind, the Men’s Club of Har Zion Congregation has successfully begun the process of expanding the scope of the Yellow Candle program to include non-Jewish organizations. The initial aim was to achieve participation of at least one Catholic parish. This was accomplished over a period of more than one year by means of a marketing effort and a great deal of perseverance.



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planning_schedule_for_expanding_candle_program.xls
The first requirement for getting a Catholic parish to participate in the Yellow Candle Program was obtaining the approval of the Bishop of the Catholic Dioceses of Phoenix. This was accomplished by means of a letter explaining the significance of the program to Christians as well as Jews. We concluded the letter by indicating that participation of the Church in the annual tradition of lighting the Yellow Candles would be another way to continue the interfaith aspirations of Pope John Paul II.

The next step was a meeting with the Assistant Chancellor to discuss the details. As a result, he forwarded the information to each of the parishes. Unfortunately, however, none of the parishes participated during the first year because we had started the program somewhat late and the timing conflicted with the Easter holiday.

We were undaunted by the lack of success initially and followed up in the second year by sending samples of the Yellow Candles to each of the 121 parishes. This was followed by a meeting with the Community Outreach Director of the large Franciscan Renewal Center. And this meeting resulted in their successful participation in the program and encouragement for much greater participation in the future. We are confident that the precedent will eventually be helpful for convincing other religious organizations to also participate.
expanding_yellow_candle_program.doc
title_expanding_yellow_candle_program.doc
article_in_jewish_news_of_greater_phoenix_apr_2013.doc

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Self Assessment
This project has already had an impact on the Franciscan Renewal Center of Phoenix. The Center is a large Catholic institution that agreed to participate in the Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle Program for the first time by purchasing 200 candles. The feedback that we have received is that their members quickly exhausted the supply. They were very moved by the message and recited the meditation as they lit the candles. As a result, the Center has verbally agreed to purchase a much larger quantity next year.

We believe that this important precedent will encourage other Catholic institutions to participate next year and that they will ultimately be joined by other Christian organizations so that the overall impact will eventually be quite significant. In addition, we feel that the success of our project will persuade other clubs to expand the participation in the Yellow Candle Program in their areas. They will be able to learn from our mistakes and benefit from the techniques that have proven to be effective.

To date, only two of our club’s 28 members have participated in this project but we plan to increase the involvement next year by organizing teams to hold face-to-face meetings with other organizations. This has proven to be the most important way to convey the message and to convince non-Jewish organizations to participate.
Our project is an innovative approach to expanding the FJMC’s Yom HaShoah Yellow Candle Program to the non-Jewish community. It teaches the very important lessons of the Holocaust to a much broader audience so that, hopefully, the atrocities of the Holocaust will never again befall Jews or any other peoples.




Due to our club's lack of experience, our video turned out to be 148 MB. This is too large to be uploaded, although it is only about 5 minutes long. As a result, we will submit a CD by mail.
Original Program
Previous Submission
Yes