Tori talked of the old canisters he saw at Auschwicz that once contained the pesticides used to kill hundreds at a time. He described in detail the piles of thousands of decaying shoes that once belonged to the Jewish prisoners at another camp.
"At this point the Holocaust became etched in my heart and the fiber of my being," he said. "I vowed to myself my son and his generation would grow up in a world filled with care, compassion and understanding."
Tori said that as a Catholic growing up in Philadelphia, he had no formal schooling on the Holocaust before college, when he sought out books on the subject on his own.
And while his interest in the Holocaust may seem unlikely on the surface, Tori reminded everyone Sunday that the Catholic faith is directly rooted in Judaism.
"In some way, I think we are all a little bit Jewish," he said.
After his remarks, 12 people from the churches and synagogue involved in the service lit candles in remembrance of the Holocaust victims.
The Rev. Jeffrey L. Roth, co-pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ, said the point of the annual service is "to remember the human price suffered during World War II. We remember so such a holocaust will never again occur."
Tori is the chair of the Religious Studies Department at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia and co-chair of the Pennsylvania State Holocaust Education Task Force.
He attended the Vladka Meed Summer Seminar on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance held in Poland and Israel in 1995, and the Yad Vashem International School of Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem in 1997.
"What really makes this man tick is his heart and his commitment to a better future between Jews and Christians and among all," said the Rev.William H. Harter, minister of Falling Spring Presbyterian Church.
The service was sponsored by the Chambersburg Area United Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Cumberland Valley, the Chambersburg Ministerial Alliance and the Chambersburg Ministerium.
