‘Remembering must be more than words’

A quiet, reflective mood settled over Town Hall during Yorktown’s annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony, where personal testimony and shared memory came together in a reminder of loss, resilience, and responsibility.

“Never forget. This has been the theme of each of our remembrances,,” Town Supervisor Ed Lachterman said. We say the words, we tell the stories, but we must also ask ourselves—are we making a difference?”

Lachterman said ceremonies like Thursday’s, which he has held since 2017, feel like they make a difference.

“I know what this experience is meant to me, and I've seen its impact on others,” he said. “But remembering must be more than words. It must shape how we see the world and how we respond to it.”

Last November, Lachterman, along with his wife Carol and a number of Westchester elected officials, went on a learning trip to Israel. He said he felt and saw despair—the heaviness of the air at a concentration camp—and on the trip he stood at the site of the Nova music festival, the scene of the brutal Oct. 7 attack.

“What became clear is this, progress is fragile, and requires constant effort,” Lachterman said.

He was struck by the families living with the trauma of those attacks and faced pushback at home for the visit.

Lachterman said hatred and antisemitism are still present. Yorktown High School senior Talia Pierson described it as an all-too-familiar feeling.

Last month, on her way home from a school trip to Albany, Pierson recalled receiving a notification about “yet another attack against the Jewish institution” at Temple Israel in Michigan, where more than a hundred children were inside.

“How could anyone be surprised? Every day, it seems, we're reminded of the fact that Jews are no longer welcome or even safe in many parts of the world,” Pierson said. “It's a painful and scary reality to grasp, and it's natural to not lose hope or to detach from reality completely.”

But she said over the last two and a half years she has also seen light shine through darkness, pointing to moments spent meeting and speaking with Holocaust survivors as points of hope—people who share their tenacity and strength in the face of unimaginable pain and horror.

At the center of this year’s program was Joseph Gosler, who shared his story not as distant history, but as something that continues to shape him to this day.

He was driven into town from New York City by Jay Gussak, of Sons of the American Legion Squadron 1009 and a Yorktown resident. Joseph Gosler’s son also attended the ceremony.

He read excerpts from his memoir, “Searching for Home: The Impact of WWII on a Hidden Child,” and spoke about his experience as a “hidden child” in Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, and also took questions from the audience.

He also read from his poem “Cobblestones,” offering a stark reflection on the conditions that preceded the Nazi rise to power:

“The air was mired with optimism. Children played in the streets, while their parents rushed off to work. Very few people took time to look beyond their own gardens,” he read from his poem “Cobblestones.”

“If they did, they disassociated themselves from what they saw and heard. What they would see and hear were symbols of the Nazi rise to power: shops vandalized, books burnt, cemeteries and places of worship desecrated and people beaten to death. Why was this happening?

It was a myopic sense of trust and belief that things would work out, that this, too, would pass. They wished for a future which was well managed, orderly, having a single culture and political vision—a vision which excluded me.”

He spoke about themes of searching for meaning, community, and a sense of home—something he said he struggled with for much of his life after the war.

That search shaped his long path forward. It took him two decades to complete his education, eventually earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He went on to spend nearly 40 years working in educational settings as a business manager, including at Friends Seminary. Along with his wife, Sheila, he co-founded Beginnings Nursery, a preschool rooted in early childhood learning and care.

He later retired from Friends Seminary in 2004, though he has remained active in Quaker projects, writing, gardening, and community life. He said he has since found a sense of purpose.

The evening also included the presentation of proclamations and remarks from a number of elected officials, including Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, whose mother survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in Holland under Nazi rule; Assemblyman and former Town Supervisor Matt Slater; Yorktown resident and County Board of Legislators Chair Vedat Gashi; Yorktown Town Board members; and other local dignitaries.

The event concluded with a candle lighting ceremony and a memorial prayer led by Rabbi Yehuda Heber of Chabad of Yorktown. Officials and community members participated in the candle lighting.

“Remembering the Holocaust teaches us the consequences of hatred left unchecked,” Heber told the crowd.

“When we remember, it calls upon us to build a world where such darkness cannot take root again,” he continued. “The world, where differences are not feared, but respected. A world that can tolerate multiple viewpoints.”

He said kindness should not be the outlier.

“May the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust be a blessing, may their lives inspire us to build a world where goodness, love, kindness, and respect reign.”