The Jewish Students’ Association will hold the first in-person Holocaust Remembrance Assembly in four years on April 13. This year, the extended assembly period will explore the theme “The Power of Words,” and begin in the Griffin Auditorium and conclude with student- and faculty-run workshops held in various locations. The portion in the auditorium and the workshops are intended to take about 45 minutes each, with about 15 minutes of transition period in between.

Along with opening and closing speeches, there will be a candle-lighting ceremony, Bel Canto and poetry performances, and a guest speaker, Susan Meschel. Dr. Meschel, who earned a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago, conducts research at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is the editor of two books and the author of another book about Jewish experiences.

“We have a speaker, someone who survived the Holocaust,” JSA co-president Charlie Benton said. “I don’t want to spoil anything, but she has a very interesting story about her experience.”

Similar to how students signed up for ArtsFest workshops, they will have the opportunity to use a Google Form to select one of the 25-30 workshops to attend, according to Charlie. JSA members will then manually place each student into a workshop, based on their responses.

Although workshops will be predominantly run by affinity groups and faculty, any student was also able to submit workshop proposals to JSA for approval. This year, according to Charlie, the club decided to conduct workshops, in addition to a traditional assembly, to truly honor all student affinity groups and to better represent the diverse experiences and perspectives of the Holocaust.