Israel's Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center's online exhibit "Weddings During the Holocaust" presents the stories of Jews who married during the Holocaust and those who married after the war in an effort to build new lives. Michael Tal, curator at Yad Vashem, discusses the exhibit and materials from Yad Vashem's collections documenting relationships between couples, as well as items describing how women imprisoned in concentration camps coped with the difficult situation forced upon them. Register to watch it on Zoom or drop in for a “watch party” in the library’s Hammond Room. If you attend the watch party, you’re welcome to stay after the program's conclusion for a discussion led by Rabbi Lisa Greene of North Shore Congregation Israel. Cosponsored with Vernon Area Public Library, Highland Park Public Library, and the Glencoe Council for Inclusion and Community.

REGISTER HERE to attend virtually via Zoom. No registration required to attend the watch party in the library. The program (but not the discussion) will be recorded and available on the library's YouTube channel. Register to have the recording link emailed to you.

More about the online exhibition: Jewish couples got married throughout the Holocaust period, in the shadow of anti-Jewish policies, dispossession, hardships, uncertainty, pervasive hunger and deprivation, and the omnipresent threat of death. During the war years, weddings took place in occupied countries, in the ghettos, in concentration and labor camps, and in hiding. Even when no one knew what the next day would bring, people felt the need to get married. Some married for love, while many others married in order to overcome loneliness, to share a common destiny, and sometimes in order to save their lives. The bond between two individuals in difficult circumstances became a source of stability, and at times the key to survival. After liberation, many couples among the She'erit Hapleita (the surviving remnant) chose to get married. As well as the need for love, weddings were an expression of the survivors' determination to rehabilitate themselves, to build new lives and to resurrect the severed family lineage. This exhibition presents the stories of Jews who decided to throw in their lot with each other and get married during the war, and Jewish couples who got married after the war in an effort to build new lives.