On June 15, 2003, the 59th anniversary of the deportations of the 30,000 Jews from Bihor County and the ghettos of Oradea was commemorated in a ceremony in the Orthodox Synagogue on Mihai Viteazul Street and by the adjacent Monument to the Deportees erected in 1946.

The Memorial Service was officiated by Chief Rabbi Menachen Hacohen, representing the Jewish Community of Romania, and Attorney Iulian Sorin, Secretary General of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania. The funeral prayer for the souls of the departed, “El Moley Rahamim”, was chanted, followed by a candle lighting ceremony. Six survivors each lighted one candle, to honor the memory of the six million Jewish people killed during the Holocaust.

Teodor Felix Koppelman, President of the Jewish Community of Oradea, spoke about the tragedy that befell the Jewish people at that time and the responsibility, shared by everyone, to remember their spirits.

Many of the several hundred Jewish residents of Oradea attended the ceremony. Representatives of the Romanian Orthodox, Protestant, Roman-Catholic and Greek-Catholic faiths were present, as were members of the City Council, representatives of various political parties, and many other Oradeans. The Jewish Community's "Hakeset "(Rainbow) Choir performed at the end of the ceremony.