Please plan to join our community and Congregation Or Atid (COA) on Sunday, April 28th at COA from 9:30 a.m. -noon for a meaningful and intimate program as we honor Dr Roger Loria, a local Holocaust Survivor.
This is the 2nd annual Yom HaShoah Holocaust and Hero’s Day Commemoration event at COA. A light Passover brunch will be served. This event is free, but reservations and donations are encouraged.
As we are very aware, there has been a significant increase in antisemitism in the world, our country, and inside our community, especially since October 7th. While this program is always incredibly important, it is particularly important to hear from our older Holocaust Survivors to recall their personal stories and to learn from the tragic lessons in our united past.
It has been said, “By keeping the memory alive through recalling these important survivor human stories we have a better chance of understanding our dark history and not repeating it.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “every new generation must learn the truth about the Holocaust. Human life must remain the highest value for all the nations in the world.” (reported with the Associated Press, Sunday 1-28-2024).
This special program is another reminder for us to not be silent spectators in the world and to speak out against all hate and genocide whenever and wherever it exists. We sincerely hope you can attend this important and moving event.
Roger Loria Bio
Roger Loria was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on April 19th, 1940—three weeks before the Germans invaded the low countries and France. Though he was born into a large and loving extended family, the war was to change the course of his young life.
By August of 1942, much of his family was either deported or in hiding. His father, Wolf, had gone to Free France to find work and protect him and his mother, Dina, from deportation as they were both Belgian citizens and he was not.
For the duration of the war, Roger and his mother became refugees, first in search of Wolf and then just trying to survive.
After the war, Roger and Dina were re-patriated to Antwerp but their troubles were not over. Dina found work in the Jewish orphanage helping with the girls, but Roger had to live on the other side with the boys. All 100 children had been orphaned by the war and later made Aliyah to Israel in 1949. Roger went to school, IDF and University there.
In 1964, he won a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study at SUNY Buffalo where he earned a Master’s Degree. He then went to Boston University to finish his PH.D. He came to learn and stayed to help.
As a professor and a medical researcher, Roger has passed thousands of M.D.s through his classes as well as dentists, graduate students, and nurses. His research in microbiology and immunology resulted in over 50 patents. With his wife, Win Bailey Loria, he has two daughters—Orrin and Rachel Loria.
Though Roger’s life began in the Holocaust, it has not been defined by it.
To register for this event, please contact the synagogue office at (804) 740-4747 or at office@oratid.org
