Israeli-American Council Dedicates Coast-to-Coast Walk-Run in Memory of One and a Half Million Child Victims of Holocaust
From the “Rocky” steps at Philadelphia’s Museum of Art to the Holocaust Museum LA, people from coast to coast are running and walking this month to remember the Holocaust and spotlight rising antisemitism in the Israeli-American Council’s #6MillionSteps campaign.
#6MillionSteps, which is dedicated to the one and a half million children who perished in the Holocaust, launched Sunday with a walk-run in Los Angeles starting at the Holocaust Museum LA and going through Pan Pacific Park. #6MillionSteps will coincide with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, on April 28, and conclude in early May.
After an outpouring of support for the inaugural 2021 campaign, when participants quickly exceeded the six million steps goal and reached 22 million steps, the IAC this year raised the bar by challenging individual communities across the country to walk or run six million steps.
This year’s #6MillionSteps campaign creates multiple paths for people to participate, including by connecting their Fitbit, Garmin or other fitness tracker to the digital campaign, adding a #6MillionSteps filter to their social media, and manually counting total steps while walking, running or exercising. Individuals, schools, communal institutions and businesses will be invited to organize and host their own events or join others nationwide.
Multiple walk-runs will take place on April 24, including:
- Atlanta’s Chastain Park and at Kennesaw State University in Marietta;
- Babi Yar Memorial Park in Denver;
- Philadelphia’s “Rocky Steps” at the Museum of Art to the Holocaust Memorial Plaza;
- Shoreline Park in the San Francisco Bay Area;
- Orlando’s Lake Lily Park;
- The National Mall in Washington, D.C. to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Las Vegas will also hold an event April 24 at a site to be finalized. On April 28, a walk-run will take place at North Lake in Irvine, Orange County, CA; and finally, on May 1, a walk-run will take place in Boston, on the Freedom Trail from the State House to the New England Holocaust Memorial.
The #6MillionSteps campaign will also offer a class on removing antisemitic content and Holocaust denial from the Web, resources on the Holocaust’s child victims, and courses for students and educators through IAC’s OFEK Learning Hub.
The courses are part of a new partnership OFEK also announced today, with the Holocaust Museum LA, Israel’s Yad Vashem and Ghetto Fighters House, to make Holocaust learning and teacher training more accessible since only 26 states mandate some form of public Holocaust education.
OFEK will feature a virtual tour of the Holocaust Museum LA, the first US Holocaust museum founded by survivors; along with special courses including a creative writing class for elementary and middle school students called “The Shoah Diaries”; an advanced, critical study of word choice and responsibility for high school students, “Voices From the Holocaust II”; and an adult-level course, “Violins of Hope.”
“At a time when our nation is experiencing a deeply alarming rise in antisemitism, from attacks on synagogues and individuals to distortions of the Holocaust in the public sphere, we will come together through #6MillionSteps to remember the Holocaust and to raise our voice against anti-Jewish hatred,” said IAC Co-Founder and CEO Shoham Nicolet.
To learn more about #6MillionSteps click here. To learn more about the OFEK Holocaust education initiative, click here.
