SERVICE TO REMEMBER VICTIMS OF HOLOCAUST.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Larry Epstein worries that the horrors of the Holocaust are fading with the passage of time.

To turn back that tide, the Friendly Valley senior will join with members of several different faiths this week to remember the victims of the concentration camps and other atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler's Nazis before and during World War II.

``All the younger generation knows of the Holocaust is what they read in history books,'' said Epstein, one of the organizers of Am Ehad, the Santa Clarita Jewish Coalition. ``The victims are beginning to die away, and without their remembrances, we will have nothing to show these children.''

Rabbi Mark Blazer of Temple Beth Ami and the Rev. Leon Strand of Friendly Valley Community United Methodist Church will conduct the community memorial service Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center, behind the sheriff's station.

``Its important that this service is for everyone,'' Epstein said Sunday. ``Not just Jews.''

Tha Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jews, Gypsies, the handicapped, homosexuals, political opponents and many other racial, ethnic and religious groups under the Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s.

The service is being sponsored by Am Ehad (``One People'') and the Council on Jewish Life of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, and is co-sponsored by Santa Clarita Valley Interfaith Council and the Santa Clarita Human Relations Committee. It will be conducted near the Holocaust Memorial Tree planted in 1995 by the Interfaith Council.

This is the second annual celebration of Yom Hashoah, the International Day of Remembrance, Epstein said. Am Ehad also offers a lecture series for Jewish adults, a bagel bash and a Jewish Night Out.

``We can't say 'never again' if we let the memories slip away,'' Epstein said.

The city of Santa Clarita has declared this entire week as Days of Remembrance. Signs of Jewish life are flourishing across the Santa Clarita Valley, where Jews - alongside thousands of other young families looking for affordable housing, suburban schools and a nice community - are increasingly making their homes.

The Interfaith Council and Am Ehad will also hold an ecumenical mock seder Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Friendly Valley Methodist Church. Participants will read from Jewish holy books, and hear the story of the Exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt.

``Everyone will get a chance to ask questions and explore, without having to feel self-conscious,'' Epstein said. ``Activities like this help people understand and respect traditions they are not a part of.''