LOS ANGELES, March 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Once imprisoned in concentration camps across Eastern Europe, thousands of Holocaust survivors are again struggling day to day - except now it's against the grim reality of economics. For these survivors, as well as some rescuers, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles are jointly launching an initiative, Six Million Coins™, to raise critical funds for those in need and, concurrently, to educate young people about genocide and to honor the six million lives lost in the Holocaust.
Launching April 7, 2013 on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), and continuing until the next commemoration on April 27, 2014, for 1 year, the Six Million Coins™ initiative will see the distribution of more than 25,000 tzedakah boxes throughout Southern California, with the goal of collecting six million coins. Participants can deposit coins they collect into a special, 8-foot-high tzedakah box located at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Simi Valley or order a Tzedakah box for their organization.
All proceeds will be distributed to six charities assisting survivors and rescuers in need:
Beit Tzedek, Bikur Cholim's Holocaust Survivors Program (HSAP), Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, Survivors of the Holocaust Program, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous,
The Survivor Mitzvah Project, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's Vulnerable Survivor Support Fund.
The initiative launches with a Yom HaShoah Memorial Service at Mount Sinai Simi Valley, at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 7, where names of the six million will start to be read.
Following the service, there will be panel of Survivors and distinguished Holocaust educators which will be moderated by Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation, discussing worldwide tolerance.
For two weeks after Yom HaShoah 2013, names will also be read by children and family members at local Los Angeles schools and synagogues.
The reading of the names will be streamed live through a dedicated website, www.sixmillioncoins.org
where visitors can learn more information and request a tzedakah box.