For the second year in a row, the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University partnered with the Casino Association of New Jersey (CANJ) to light up Atlantic City yellow to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Bally’s Atlantic City, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Caesars Atlantic City, Golden Nugget Atlantic City, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts Atlantic City and Tropicana Atlantic City changed outside lighting to yellow at dusk on Tuesday, Jan. 27 as part of a nationwide awareness campaign that includes the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
Yellow symbolizes Holocaust awareness because it was the color of the Star of David badges Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
The casinos’ participation is part of Light Up America Yellow, a nationwide coalition with the goal of having buildings light up yellow in all 50 states to ensure that remembrance and the lessons of the Holocaust remain a national priority and continue to guide future generations. Other national locations, including Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, took part in the commemoration.
Irvin Moreno-Rodriguez, the director of Stockton’s Holocaust Resource Center and a member of the New Jersey Commission, first approached Mark Giannantonio, the president and CEO of Resorts and the president of the casino association, with the idea in 2025. Seven casinos took part last year.
“As the Atlantic City casinos illuminate in yellow, let us take this opportunity to be reminded that from darkness, we are responsible for bringing forth light,” Moreno-Rodriguez said. “By joining this global commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, our casinos and the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University stand, as a united front, to honor the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust and to serve as a social bulwark against antisemitism and all forms of hate.”
Giannantonio is a Stockton graduate who took a Holocaust and Genocide Studies class while attending the university.
“Atlantic City’s casinos are proud to join communities around the world in commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” Giannantonio said. “As an industry, we are proud to illuminate our properties in yellow to honor the memory of the millions of men, women and children who lost their lives in the Holocaust. This day reminds us of the responsibility we all share to remember, to educate and to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.”
Moreno-Rodriguez, who also teaches Holocaust and Genocide Studies classes at Stockton, said the campaign also helps us all to remember the lessons of the Holocaust.
“We shine on this day so the world never forgets our shared humanity, the lessons and legacies of the Holocaust, and our collective duty to leave the world better than we found it,” he said.
