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A diverse array of religious leaders, choirs, and community members packed the gym at the Jewish Community of Middlesex County April 12 for the local interfaith clergy association's interfaith memorial, an annual Yom Hashoah rite in Edison.

Nine years ago, Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg of Congregation Beth-El in Edison and Rev. John D. Painter of Centenary United Methodist Church in Metuchen made the interfaith program a reality in Edison. Rosenberg wrote what he called ''probably the first interfaith Holocaust program in the United States'' 35 years ago, a program now used as a template for the Metuchen Edison Area Interfaith Clergy Association's service.

Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano, who took office in January, underscored the importance of the entire township -- not just the Jewish community -- remembering the Holocaust.

''It's so important because the only way for people to get along is to get to know each other on a very personal level,'' Ricigliano told The Jewish State after the ceremony. ''It should never be about 'me' or 'you,' it should always be about 'us'.''

This year's program, also broadcast on the Edison Television Network, focused not only on Holocaust victims and survivors, but on the roles of righteous gentiles who ''risked their lives, risked the well-beings of themselves and their families in order to save even one [Jewish] life,'' said Rabbi Deborah K. Bravo of Temple Emanu-El in Edison, who is the interfaith clergy association's president. Bravo noted January's death of Miep Gies, a Dutch woman who hid Anne Frank and her family during the Holocaust, and then preserved Frank's now widely read diary after the family was arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Gies, who died at 100, was featured along with other righteous gentiles in a photo exhibit at the JCC accompanying the ceremony. During the program, Painter read a passage called ''Our Helpers in the Secret Annex'' from ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', focusing on how Miep and her husband Jan graciously helped the Frank family.

''Never have [Miep and Jan] uttered a single word about the burden we must be, never have they complained that we're too much trouble,'' Painter read from Anne's diary.

Also participating in the service were Rev. Dr. Ronald Owens of New Hope Baptist Church in Metuchen, Cantor Sheldon Levin of Congregation Neve Shalom in Metuchen, Rev. Janice Sutton of Trinity United Methodist Church in Metuchen, Imam Moustafa Zayed of the Muslim Center of New Jersey, Rev. Mark McCreary of Second Baptist Church in Metuchen, Rosenberg, and Rabbi Melinda Zalma of Congregation Beth Mordecai in Perth Amboy.

''We are honored to share this time of reflection and remembrance with you, as we experience your expressions, it helps us to understand more of what you experience on a personal level,'' McCreary told the crowd.

Musical performances included the Tzur Emanu-el choir of Temple Emanu-El (led by Cantor Jacqueline Shuchat-Marx), the New Hope Baptist Church Traveling Choir (from Metuchen), the New Jersey Gay Men's Chorus, and the ''Praise Team'' of Trinity United Methodist Church in Highland Park.

Opening the ceremony, Bravo said that, ''as a group of interfaith individuals representing many different communities, we come here to remember, to pray, to sing, and even to rejoice that we are able to be here together.''

Rosenberg said that having an interfaith memorial is important because if the world had been united around the time of the Holocaust, perhaps 6 million Jews wouldn't have been murdered and millions more than that would be alive today.

Eric Nacht, president of the JCC, said the annual program exemplifies how the JCC exists for the purposes of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and ensuring the spiritual and physical well-being of all families in Middlesex County -- Jewish or not.

''What better place than here, as part of a community campus, that we are unified here this evening?'' Nacht said. ''We are here tonight as members of the human race, outraged by this horrific event,'' he said.