A TIME TO REMEMBER 'HOLOCAUSTS OF HISTORY' OBSERVATION SET.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Atrocities against American Indians, Armenians and other peoples will be remembered along with the World War II murder of millions of Jews in a community ``Holocaust Remembrance'' day.

Dance, music and drama will depict what organizers call ``the many holocausts of history,'' including African-Americans' slavery, the decimation of American Indian peoples, mass deaths of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, and modern-day killings in places such as Bosnia.

``We realized for our diverse community up here, remembering one holocaust is just not enough. Just about every group has had their own holocaust,'' said Ira Simonds, a Quartz Hill High School history teacher and the program chairman.

Held on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which has been commemorated by Jews around the world since the end of World War II, Lancaster's Holocaust Remembrance 2000 program will take place at 7 p.m. May 2 at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd.

Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are recommended. Call [phone] for reservations and information.

The keynote speaker will be retired California Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian, whose grandfather was executed by a firing squad along with other leaders of his village in Turkey during World War I.

The program will also include retired Antelope Valley College President Allan Kurki, a historian who as a boy survived the World War II bombing of his native Finland, and who will talk about the millions of non-Jews who died in Nazi concentration camps.

Also participating will be students and staffers from Antelope Valley High School, an Armenian dance troupe, representatives of the Museum of Tolerance, the High Desert First Nations Coalition, Antelope Valley College history professor Matthew Jaffe, the Quartz Hill High School drama class and the Lancaster High School a cappella choir.

Lobby displays will be set up by the Museum of Tolerance and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The program is intended to let people ``reflect on the different atrocities the human community has wreaked on one another,'' with hopes it may contribute in a small way toward a more tolerant future, Rabbi Alan Henkin of Congregation Beth Knesset Bamidbar said at Wednesday's announcement of the event.

``In one way or another, somehow or other, through the process of time, each of us has had our own holocaust,'' said Lancaster Vice Mayor Henry Hearns, an African-American and a Baptist pastor. ``I came from Mississippi. I was born in 1933, so I was not aware of the Holocaust until later in life, but I knew what I was going through: not going to be able to go to school as others did.''

The program is sponsored by Beth Knesset, the Chabad Center for Jewish Enrichment and B'nai B'rith, in partnership with the city and the Council on Jewish Life of the Jewish Federation of Southern California.

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Photo: Henry Hearns, left, presents Rabbi Alan Henkin with a proclamation marking a ``Week of Remembrance'' April 30-May 2.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer