Benny Harding will chair the 2016 Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Memorial Service, to be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at the Jewish Community Campus. Harding is the son of Dorothy Kuzeck Harding and Harry Harding, both of blessed memory.
Harry, originally from Warsaw, was a prisoner in eight different concentration camps. Dorothy grew up outside Czestochowa, Poland, and spent most of the war in the Ravensbruck camp. They survived to begin their new lives in the Displaced Persons Camp in Landsberg, Gemany, where their son, Benny, was born. The family arrived in Kansas City on July 4, 1949.
Benny Harding is a graduate of the University of Missouri and the University of Tulsa Law School. He has practiced law since 1971. He and his wife, Susan (Clayman) Harding are the parents of three children, Greg, Robin and Lucia, and grandparents of Mayim Hope Harding and Nolan Spiro Harding. They are members of Congregation Beth Shalom.
The theme for the 2016 commemoration is “Postwar Journeys.” Readings and images related to the arrival of survivors in Kansas City will be featured in the program.
The community is invited to attend this Yom Hashoah service, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the 53rd anniversary of the dedication of Kansas City’s Memorial to the Six Million.
This annual community commemoration program is coordinated by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, the Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee. Local Jewish organizations are co-sponsors.
