Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

If you are a visitor of this website:

Please try again in a few minutes.

There is an issue between Cloudflare's cache and your origin web server. Cloudflare monitors for these errors and automatically investigates the cause. To help support the investigation, you can pull the corresponding error log from your web server and submit it our support team. Please include the Ray ID (which is at the bottom of this error page). Additional troubleshooting resources.

See the original post here:

The Holocaust as Jew-Haters' 'Gotcha' - Jewish Journal

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on The Holocaust as Jew-Haters’ ‘Gotcha’ – Jewish Journal
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

Submitted Photos Area high school students and teachers in the Holocaust and Social Justice Program of Chautauqua County are pictured on the U.S. Capitol steps with U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy

In the early morning hours of March 8, a bus departed from Chautauqua Lake High School carrying 50 students and teachers from Chautauqua Lake, Pine Valley, Jamestown, Silver Creek, Sherman, Brocton, Clymer and Forestville schools.

The Holocaust and Social Justice Program is run by Leigh Anne Hendrick and Emily Dorman, Chautauqua Lake High School teachers.

This unique county-wide program continues to have a significant and lasting impact on our students and teachers, Hendrick said. Each year we are empowering students and teachers to become active allies, advocates and agents of change in their communities. Its pretty amazing.

Upon arriving in Washington, D.C., the group proceeded to the Capitol Building, where they were met by U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy. Students asked the congressman about policy, philosophy and logistics on Capitol Hill. When asked about something he was particularly proud of, Langworthy spoke about the legislation passed to increase standards for pilot training after the crash of flight 3407 in Clarence. After a discussion on the Capitol steps, the group was given a tour of the Capitol Building before proceeding to the Library of Congress.

Submitted Photos Area high school students and teachers in the Holocaust and Social Justice Program of Chautauqua County are pictured at the Lincoln Memorial.

The second day of the trip began with a tour of the White House the first time the program has toured the White House.

The best type of learning doesnt always take place in a classroom, said Jessica Kardashian, a Silver Creek teacher who organized the experience. First hand visits to museums, monuments, listening to speakers, testimonies, being able to touch, smell and feel places are experiences that dont just inspire you, but push you to see your own power and to create a world thats better than you found it.

From there, the group proceeded through the National Mall, and to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where they spent the remainder of the afternoon.

As I first entered the exhibits, and walking through the rail car, I experienced a palpable and gut-wrenching connection to the history and grief experienced by people of the past and present, said Greg Cross, Sherman history teacher.

The students wandered through the permanent exhibit, absorbing the history and trauma of this time at their own pace. During reflection after the visit, many students pointed to the impact that viewing tangible artifacts of the Holocaust had on them.

The pictures of communities and families really had the greatest impact on me because so many of these people never got to live the life they deserved, said Autumn Rice, Silver Creek student.

When I was walking through the Holocaust Museum, it was very challenging to breathe regularly seeing everything that happened to any groups that the Nazis felt were inferior was horrible. It just made me so upset I didnt know many of the things that I learned in the museum, and it made me really look at the treatment of people differently, said Madeline Woodruff, a Jamestown High School student.

After finishing Saturday night with a night tour of the monuments, participants began their Sunday morning by listening to Maureen Rovegno, former director of religion at Chautauqua Institution. Rovegno encouraged students to forgive, saying that reconciliation heals harm, but forgiveness heals us.

Brocton teacher Collin Mulcahy said Rovegnos message resonated with him.

(This has) inspired me to let go of the fear, let go of the past, and seek out the good in people, he said.

Mulcahy wasnt the only member of the group who heard a message of forgiveness.

We are privileged, said Chautauqua Lake student Lydia Kushmaul. That can lead to shame, or guilt, and that is okay, and I think even important. But whats more important is what we do with those feelings we need to take them and channel our anger and shame into doing whatever we can to ensure future generations do not feel them on behalf of we do, or, more importantly, what we didnt do.

The group closed out their trip at the United States Museum of African American History and Culture. When asked about the words that came to mind after their time in the museum, students said they felt empowered, overwhelmed, guilty and motivated. Students were struck by the physical artifacts of slavery and injustice, as well as the images of rising above overwhelming opposition.

Im astonished by the persistence to make a way when there seems like there is none, said Jamestown teacher Betsy Rowe-Baehr. In both museums, communities keep on. They establish schools, banks, newspapers, churches with no resources other than one another. As they make progress, another obstacle or evil force prevents it from growing. But even though movements and leaders find a reason to keep trying and testing to get up and do. I love learning how the unsung heroes who use their resources or gifts to help others. Bethune, Baldwin, Run DMC farmers, fisherman, families who put aside self and live out the highest of ideals.

Both the Holocaust and Social Justice Program of Chautauqua County program and the trip to Washington D.C., are sponsored by the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua. The trip is a capstone of year-long studies, including a fall workshop for teachers, a meet-and-greet for participating students and teachers, and a student symposium after the trip to culminate their experiences, learning and reflection. The program serves all teachers and students of Chautauqua County.

This trip and this program serves the humanity in our students and teachers, Dorman said. We are surrounded by incredible people daring each other to think and to be better, and it is these shared experiences that allow us to march forward in making equality, justice, and inherent respect for one another tangible and possible.

For more information about this program, visit http://www.chqsocialjustice.org

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Read more from the original source:

'Lasting impact': Holocaust and Social Justice Program visits capital - Evening Observer

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on ‘Lasting impact’: Holocaust and Social Justice Program visits capital – Evening Observer
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

A Latet volunteer visits a Holocaust survivor. (Courtesy of Latet)

After undergoing essential hip surgery that left Holocaust survivor Vyacheslav last name withheld for anonymity wheelchair-bound, the 89-year-old man struggled with new mobility limitations within his own bathroom.

That was until he received free home repairs for mobility accommodation from Latet Israeli Humanitarian Aid, a grantee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Vyacheslavs bathroom renovation was one of 480 critical home repairs that Latet volunteers completed for Holocaust survivors in 2023.

For Holocaust survivors like Vyacheslav, who face economic hardships disrupting their quality of life, Latet is a crucial beacon of hope. Of the estimated 147,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel, one in three live under the poverty line, according to the Holocaust Survivors Rights Authority.

Latet works to solve this economic disparity through its Aid for Life program, which provides Holocaust survivors with the necessary resources such as food, home repairs and social services to age with dignity.

Our goal is not only to assist with the physical health of survivors but also to help them feel comfortable, social and fulfilled in their final years, said Director of the Aid For Life Program Shir Cohen of Latet, an organization that also serves as the largest food bank in Israel.

The Jewish Federation has been a longtime partner of Latet, providing funding for the Israel-based organizations overall mission and, specifically, its Aid for Life program. Last year, the Jewish Federation awarded $150,000 to Latet. Among its lifesaving work, this funding enabled Latet to provide 1,500 Holocaust survivors with bimonthly food boxes and hygiene products in 2023. It also supported the organizations ability to provide emergency funds for unforeseen and urgent needs including in-home social support and essential home repairs.

Thanks to our devoted partnership with the Jewish Federation, Latet is able to dedicate our resources to aiding Holocaust survivors nationwide, Latet founder and President Gilles Darmon said. In the past few years, we have expanded our assistance in serving survivors, including enhancing the nutritional value of our aid by incorporating fresh produce and protein into our packages, and increasing our partner NGOs and distribution centers around the country.

Supporting agencies like Latet is paramount to the Jewish Federations commitment to caring for Holocaust survivors.

The Jewish Federations support of organizations like Latet are one of the ways in which we keep our solemn promise to never forget the atrocities of the past and to be there for those who survived, said Director of Israel and Global Operations Talia (Tali) Lidar of the Jewish Federation. In Israel, it is more important than ever that we ensure that the needs of Holocaust survivors and those in need are addressed during this ongoing crisis.

Since the Oct. 7 massacre, Latet has distributed 12,400 additional food, hygiene boxes and essential winter kits to more than 2,000 Holocaust survivors not previously enrolled in its program.

This sad reality emphasizes the importance of helping survivors at the highest capacity in the remaining time that is left with them, said Cohen, who noted that an estimated 40 Holocaust survivors die every day.

***

As Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches the evening of May 5 through May 6, the Jewish Federation reaffirms its year-round commitment to supporting Holocaust survivors in Greater Philadelphia, Israel and elsewhere around the world. You can support this work by making a gift at jewishphilly.org/donate. You can also join the 60th Annual Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial Ceremony on May 5 from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza by registering at jewishphilly.org/remember.

See the article here:

Aging with Dignity: Jewish Federation Grantee Supports Holocaust Survivors in Israel - Jewish Exponent

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Aging with Dignity: Jewish Federation Grantee Supports Holocaust Survivors in Israel – Jewish Exponent
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

DEATH OF GANNON JOHNSON FROM LAST YEAR. HAPPENING TONIGHT A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SHARES HER INCREDIBLE STORY OF PERSEVERANCE. ROSIE ROSENKRANTZ WILL SPEAK AT DEPAUL GALLERY ON TULANES CAMPUS AT 6:30 P.M. DESCRIBED AS A MIRACLE BABY, ROSIE WAS BORN IN A SIBERIAN SLAVE LABOR CAMP. HER TALK KICKS OFF ONLY MIRACLES, A PLAY BASED ON THE LIFE OF HER PARENTS. EVENT ORGANIZERS HOPE THE CONVERSATION WILL BRING THIS DIFFICULT MOMENT OF HISTORY INTO SHARPER FOCUS. WE CAN READ THE TEXTBOOKS AND WE CAN WATCH THE DOCUMENTARIES, BUT I THINK ITS FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT TO SIT DOWN AND ENGAGE WITH SOMEONE WHO WAS ACTUALLY THERE AND CAN SPEAK WITH AUTHORITY ON THE EXPERIENCE. ONLY MIRACLES OPENS THIS SATURDAY AT THE TOURO SYNAGOGUE ON SAINT CHARLES AVENUE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ATTENDING

Holocaust survivor described as 'miracle baby' to speak at Tulane Wednesday

Rosie Rosenkranz was born in a Siberian labor camp.

Updated: 8:47 AM CDT Apr 10, 2024

A Holocaust survivor will share her story during a talk on Tulane University's campus on Wednesday.Rosy Rosenkranz is described as a miracle baby, born in a Siberian slave labor camp, according to Professor Dodd Loomis, who has researched her family extensively.Rosenkranz will speak at 6:30 p.m. inside the Diboll Gallery. Her talk is open to the public, but registration is required. To do so, click here.The conversation kicks off the opening of "Only Miracles," a play telling the story of Rosenkranz's parents.Its first showing is Saturday, April 13, inside the Touro Synagogue on St. Charles Avenue. To purchase tickets, click here. Loomis wrote, produced and directed the play, which he hopes will be an active and immersive experience for attendees."I think when you sit down and read a book, for me ... its easy to just engage the prefrontal cortex and turn this into an academic experience," Loomis said. "Theres some value there, but we have to push beyond that, and what Im trying to do is have the audience have an emotional connection."He hopes through both the talk with Rosenkranz and the play, people will understand the Holocaust more effectively."When you say six million, I cant wrap my head around that. Its a statistic. Theres no emotional piece," Loomis said. "So to be able to tell two people's, two survivors' stories, both of which all of their families were killed, in real personal detail, to me, informs the greater whole."

A Holocaust survivor will share her story during a talk on Tulane University's campus on Wednesday.

Rosy Rosenkranz is described as a miracle baby, born in a Siberian slave labor camp, according to Professor Dodd Loomis, who has researched her family extensively.

Rosenkranz will speak at 6:30 p.m. inside the Diboll Gallery. Her talk is open to the public, but registration is required. To do so, click here.

The conversation kicks off the opening of "Only Miracles," a play telling the story of Rosenkranz's parents.

Its first showing is Saturday, April 13, inside the Touro Synagogue on St. Charles Avenue. To purchase tickets, click here.

Loomis wrote, produced and directed the play, which he hopes will be an active and immersive experience for attendees.

"I think when you sit down and read a book, for me ... its easy to just engage the prefrontal cortex and turn this into an academic experience," Loomis said. "Theres some value there, but we have to push beyond that, and what Im trying to do is have the audience have an emotional connection."

He hopes through both the talk with Rosenkranz and the play, people will understand the Holocaust more effectively.

"When you say six million, I cant wrap my head around that. Its a statistic. Theres no emotional piece," Loomis said. "So to be able to tell two people's, two survivors' stories, both of which all of their families were killed, in real personal detail, to me, informs the greater whole."

See more here:

Holocaust survivor described as 'miracle baby' to speak at Tulane Wednesday - WDSU New Orleans

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Holocaust survivor described as ‘miracle baby’ to speak at Tulane Wednesday – WDSU New Orleans
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

(New York Jewish Week) Ive known Hanna Slome for my entire life: She and her husband Henry Slome were close friends of my parents. I knew that in the 1930s, Henry fled Nazi Germany and Hanna had somehow gotten out of Czechoslovakia, but I didnt know the details of her escape.

Neither, it turned out, did Hanna. It was only in 1999 60 years after the event that she discovered she was one of 669 children, the majority of them Jewish, whod been saved from the Nazis by Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker.

Wintons extraordinary scheme to rescue Czech children by bringing them to the UK was first recognized publicly on a BBC television show in 1988, where he was reunited with dozens of those who owed their lives to him. Now, a new feature film, One Life, chronicles the courageous, perilous humanitarian project. Anthony Hopkins stars as Winton, who in early 1939 spent a month in Prague just six weeks before Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and concocted a complex plan to raise money, forge documents and find homes for as many Jewish children as possible in England.

Hanna who turns 99 on Thursday never spoke much about how she ended up in England. I didnt want to relive that part of my life, she told me in a phone interview on Friday. It wasnt until watching a documentary about Winton 25 years ago that she was astonished to find her name on the list of children who made it to Britain on the Czech Kindertransport negotiated by Winton.

Hanna Beer, who was 14 at the time, lived in the city of Ostrava. Her father and older brother had managed to get to London; she and her mother intended to follow them. Hanna believes her father must have gotten word of Wintons enterprise, and signed her up for it.

Whereas One Life depicts heart-wrenching scenes of parents saying goodbye to their children at the Prague train station ahead of the 700-mile journey west, Hanna has a more intimate memory of the night before her departure. I was lying in bed with my mother, she told me this week, holding her hand and telling her I didnt want to go. She promised me she would come to England very soon. That never happened.

In the British capital, Hannas father and brother were living in a boarding house for refugees. Hanna lived with about five different foster families over the next few years. But my father would sit on the steps of their houses on many nights, to make sure I got home safely, she said. She worked as a maid, and to this day regrets that her formal education ended at age 14.

As World War II ended, Hannas father sent her to New York City, where she had relatives. Hanna believes her father already had received notice that her mother had been killed in Bergen-Belsen and at some point, after putting his daughter on the ship, he returned to his apartment and took his own life. Her brother lived the rest of his life in England.

In the aftermath of such trauma and tragedy, Hanna married Henry Slome, settled in the Flushing section of Queens, New York, and had two children, Jesse and Judy. She is now the grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of nine. (Many are in Israel, as Judy made aliyah decades ago.) I have a boyfriend whos nine years younger than me, Hanna, whose husband died in the early 1970s, told me. He lives nearby and calls me every day!

Hanna self-sufficient and still living by herself in the family home traveled to Prague in 2009 with her daughter for the 70th anniversary of her escape. She and some of the other children took that train ride again to London, where they were greeted by none other than Winton himself, then 100. He even took the group back to his spacious mansion in Maidenhead for a visit. (Winton died in 2015 at 106.)

Although the modest Winton was gratified by the attention and awards he received in his later years, including a knighthood, Hanna says he was haunted by the children left behind who ended up in the clutches of the Nazis. I know he was unhappy that he only saved 669, she said.

Wintons largest transport of Czech Jewish children was scheduled to happen on Sept. 1,1939. But that day, Germany invaded Poland and the borders were closed. Winton later wrote: Within hours of the announcement, the train disappeared. None of the 250 children aboard was seen again. We had 250 families waiting at Liverpool Street that day in vain. If the train had been a day earlier, it would have come through. Not a single one of those children was heard of again, which is an awful feeling.

Our nonprofit newsroom depends on readers like you. Make a donation now to support independent Jewish journalism in New York.

Hanna will mark her 99th birthday Thursday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, viewing another new Holocaust film, Irenas Vow, about a Polish housekeeper who sheltered Jews.

Hanna has seen One Life several times, including at the New York premiere in January. She says watching the film was not especially disturbing to her. The fact that I lost my whole family and six million others thats what makes me emotional, she said.

For a number of years, Hanna visited schools, telling the story of Sir Nicholas and her survival. Looking back now, just a year from the century mark, she sums it all up with gratitude and joy: Oh, boy, what a life Ive had. Im so happy to be here.

One Life is currently playing in select theaters nationwide, and is streaming on Amazon Prime, AppleTV and other platforms.

Continue reading here:

A Queens-based Holocaust survivor remembers her real-life rescuer played by Anthony Hopkins in One Life - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on A Queens-based Holocaust survivor remembers her real-life rescuer played by Anthony Hopkins in One Life – JTA News – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

April 10, 2024 @ 11:30 AM

Peacock and Sky revealed the full official trailer for the limited series The Tattooist of Auschwitz, based on the internationally best-selling book by Heather Morris, on Wednesday.

The book and show are inspired by the real-life story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who met while prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust of World War II. The series is told in frame story, with Harvey Keitel as the older Lali recounting his story to a woman named Heather, played by Melanie Lynskey.

All six episodes of the original drama will land on Peacock on May 2.

The trailer opens with Keitels 80-year-old Lali Sokolov waking down a path with Melanie Lynskeys Heather Morris.

Mr. Sokolov, Morris addresses Lali, who counters with a warm Call me Lali.

Youre looking for someone to write your life story, she says.

60 years ago in 1942, Lali (portrayed by Jonah Hauer-King), a Slovakian Jew, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over one million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Keitels Lali assures Lynskeys Morris that this is a love story.

Cramped quarters, stern commands and a volatile SS officer Baretzki (Jonas Nay) set a grim tone for Hauer-Kings Lali, who becomes a Ttowierer, or tattooist, at the concentration camp.

Every time I open my eyes, Keitel tells Lynskey, I am still there.

Another prisoner advises Lali to find something in your mind, a good thing. He tells Morris that did find something, or rather someone.

Enter Anna Prchniaks Gita, who gets her identification number tattooed on her arm by Lali. Something sparks the moment the two meet eyes. A tear rolls down Gitas cheek, and she smiles.

Nays Baretzki witnesses the flame kindle from the shadows, but Lali keeps cool when he asks about it.

We must keep living, Prchniak says. Whatever it takes.

The pair shares a kiss as Keitels Lali experiences the ghosts of his traumatic past in his present-day living room.

Love still exists, Prchniak whispers. Even here.

All six episodes of the limited series are directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer. Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve composed the score for the drama.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is executive produced by Claire Mundell through her company Synchronicity Films and is produced in association with Sky Studios and All3Media International. The series is a co-production from Sky and Peacock. Jacquelin Perske is Executive Producer and lead writer for The Tattooist of Auschwitz alongside episode writers Evan Placey (Associate Producer) and Gabbie Asher. Serena Thompson is Executive Producer for Sky Studios.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz arrives on Peacock May 2 in a binge release.

Go here to read the rest:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz Trailer Teases a Holocaust-Set Love Story - TheWrap

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on The Tattooist of Auschwitz Trailer Teases a Holocaust-Set Love Story – TheWrap
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

Longtime Proskauer Rose partner andformerNew York City Bar Association presidentRobert M. Kaufman, who died Monday at the age of 94, will be remembered for his legendary career and his public service, those who knew him said.

Bob was a mentor and friend to many at Proskauer for generations, and he will be remembered for the impact he left on others as much as for his work in law, a Proskauer Rose spokesperson said. He was a giant of the Bar, who will be truly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Follow this link:

'A Giant of the Bar': Longtime Proskauer Rose Partner and Holocaust Survivor Robert Kaufman Dies at 94 | New York ... - Law.com

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on ‘A Giant of the Bar’: Longtime Proskauer Rose Partner and Holocaust Survivor Robert Kaufman Dies at 94 | New York … – Law.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

Judy Rakowsky

Judy Rakowsky

When a bill was introduced last month in the Pennsylvania Senate to make Holocaust education uniform and mandatory, a survivor spoke at the Pennsylvania State Capitol about the need for teaching children about the industrialized genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II.

The Holocaust must be taught forever and ever, Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann said. While more than a dozen states have legislation encouraging Holocaust education, few have come with funding to carry it out. Some well-meaning pushback comes from those who question the effectiveness of the efforts thus far. The millions of dollars spent on monuments, museums and education programs have not stemmed the tide of antisemitism.

The point has been made long before the current surge in antisemitic incidents. As Harvard Professor Emerita Ruth R. Wisse observed in a 2020 National Affairs article, In reality, anti-Semitism in the United States has spread in tandem with increased teaching about the Holocaust. She said that the problem in part stems from focusing on hate without addressing the way governments use grievance and blame to appeal to constituencies that can benefit them politically. Hitler himself came to power in an electoral process based on organizing politics against the Jews, to his political benefit.

The politics of grievance and blame may indeed foment hatred, distrust, envy, rage, fear, and violence, but it is primarily a political instrument for gaining, wielding, and extending power, Wisse wrote.

Centuries of anti-Jewish teaching and opposition are put into action when leaders need to win voters and followers, she observed.

Well-settled pieces of history are upended in this way. Take the way that the history of American slavery has been upended in state legislatures.

Last year, Florida officially changed it and now even requires middle schoolers to be taught that enslaved people reaped vocational benefits, as if there were any justification for brutally kidnapping people from their home country and shipping them around the world to be sold into lifelong slave labor.

This wave of political thinking is not limited to Florida. Lawmakers in 44 states, including Pennsylvania, have proposed restrictions on the teaching of racism and sexism, content that overemphasizes the dark, difficult chapters of American history at the expense of fostering patriotism, according to an analysis by Education Week in 2021.

Theres an extensive track record of governments using bedrock historical events to strum grievances in certain quarters of their population and distorting them for political gain. The history of the Holocaust itself has been subjected to legal contortions by governments across Europe and beyond in memory laws that ostensibly sought to protect it from distortion.

In 1986, Germany was the first to pass a memory law that was seen as a bulwark against a resurgence of Nazi ideology taking root again.

That law kicked off a trend that spread to many former Soviet satellites.

On my first visit to Poland in 1990, I witnessed the giddy exuberance of people feeling free after nearly five decades of communist oppression.

A mighty alliance of the trade union Solidarity and the Catholic Church brought down the Soviet communist government, followed by a seismic shift toward democracy and the swiftest and most effective conversion to a market economy in Europe.

By the time I returned to Warsaw a year later, there was a spring in the step of many Poles who were finally free to think about topics that had been taboo for decades, including the systematic murder of millions of Jews in death camps that Hitler purposefully placed on Polish soil.

Some of that release took the form of swastikas painted on buildings and freer expression of anti-Jewish thoughts. Soviet-era monuments at concentration camps lumped all the victims together as those who suffered under Hitlers fascism without mentioning the systematic extermination of Jews.

In those heady days of the 1990s, Poland set about erecting pillars of a western-style democracy, unlocking access to government archives, and creating an unfettered judiciary and allowing for independent media.

In December 1998 Poland joined the growing list of European nations that outlawed denial of the Holocaust. The laws sent a signal to former Soviet satellite populations that history would now be something that would hew to the facts instead of the political will of those in power.

Eventually, some 30 European nations would enact laws criminalizing statements about the past, according to historian Nikolay Koposov. In Memory Laws, Memory Wars, Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia, he said that the laws cemented the history of the Holocaust and also had a unifying effect on European nations after the fall of Soviet communism.

But politics would once again get in the way of true history.

Russia led the way, using a memory law to prohibit incorrect versions of history. In 2014, after Russia attacked and seized part of the Crimea, starting war with Ukraine, it enacted a law that sanitized the history of the brutal Stalin regime, penalizing the dissemination of false information on the activities of the USSR during the Second World War.

In Poland in 2015, a right-wing populist government allied with the Catholic Church gained control of the government in Poland. It proceeded to amend the very law enacted in 1998 to outlaw Holocaust denial. It criminalized all statements about Polands role in the Holocaust that implied any complicity.

The global outcry that followed prompted Polish leaders to defend their efforts. They were not trying to whitewash history but to counter misinformation.

As Uladzislau Belavusau writes in The Rise of Memory Laws in Poland, the revisionist legislation was designed to stir up nationalism and safeguard support for the government by feeding primitive populism with the neurotic memory of World War II.

It followed revelations about the Poles burning their neighbors alive in Jedwabne in 1941 and the massacre of Jews in Kielce after the war in 1946, and many other incidents that occurred because of discoveries by scholars of historical facts who gained access to archives after the fall of communism.

As the impulse to restrict and cancel true history spreads in the U.S., we should learn from Russia and Poland.

As Sami Steigmann says, we do need to teach people about the Holocaust. But we must avoid politicizing it for self-serving aims. Otherwise, we could see widespread Holocaust education that undermines the teaching of true history.

Judy Rakowsky is the author of several books on Jewish history.

Originally posted here:

Holocaust Education Not as Simple as it Seems - Jewish Exponent

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Holocaust Education Not as Simple as it Seems – Jewish Exponent
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

April 10, 2024 A group of Westchester County area second-generation Holocaust survivors will appear live today on Zoom starting at 7 p.m. to discuss a book they have written and published documenting their families experiences during the Holocaust. Testaments of Courage in the Holocaust is a compilation of true stories told by the authors that describes the courage and resilience of their family members who escaped the Nazis final solution.

Putting this book together was a labor of love for me a gift to the dear friends I met when I joined a Storykeeping Workshop sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center. said Melanie Roher, one of the authors of the book. When I listened to everyones stories during the class, I wanted to remember them, and not lose them over time. It has been a joy to work with each of my classmates, whose parents stories now live on these pages.

Roher lives in White Plains, NY, and she is a member of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) GenerationsForward Speakers Bureau, a second and third generation group that includes children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who appear at area schools, synagogues, churches and other community events. HHREC Memory Keepers are trained speakers who tell their familys story from their next generation perspective, adding new meaning to the survivors powerful stories of witness. Other local authors whose stories appear in the book include Pat Gaston (Irvington), Tina Goldman (Ossining), Michelle Griffenberg (Tarrytown), Ziporah Janowski (Croton on the Hudson), Gloria Lazar (Tarrytown), Joan Poulin (Somers), Vivian Pronin (Hastings-on-Hudson) Helen Rubel (Irvington), Dennis Schoen (Fairlawn, NJ), and Debby Ziering (Greenwich, CT.)

In the book Forward written by Lazar, she describes her experience working with fellow authors. The personal histories in this book reflect months and years of research and reflection by a group of second and third generation descendants of Holocaust survivors, and in one case, a child Holocaust survivor. During the winter and spring of 2019, we met in a workshop each week and engaged in the arduous process of dissecting and writing our family histories. We searched through letters, diaries, photographs, audio and video tapes every form of record to uncover the struggle, displacement and survival of our family members who emigrated to the United States from almost every country in Europe where Jews were hunted by the Nazis. They are remembered by daughters, sons and grandchildren determined to document the courage of these brave individuals who escaped the Nazis final solution. The difficult journeys taken by our families reflect the ultimate triumph of the human spirit against the inhumane efforts by the Nazis to eliminate the Jews of Europe. We honor these brave men and women whose DNA we possess and whose spirit we hope to illuminate in our stories.

The book is available for sale on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Testaments-Courage-Holocaust-Children-Survivors/dp/B0C87SSX3L and is available for teachers to utilize in their classrooms from the HHREC Anna & Nicholas Elefant Library in White Plains.

To register for this event visit HHRECNY.org.

Read more here:

Westchester Area Authors to Appear Live to Discuss New Book on the Holocaust - The Inside Press

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Westchester Area Authors to Appear Live to Discuss New Book on the Holocaust – The Inside Press
Tags:

Posted By admin on April 11, 2024

2024 by Wine Time Media, LLC PO Box 811, Belmar, NJ 07719 info@newjerseystage.com Images used on this site have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and PR firms. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us and we will look into the matter.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and on our RSS feed

Here is the original post:

RVCC to Host Webinar on Holocaust Remembrance - New Jersey Stage

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on RVCC to Host Webinar on Holocaust Remembrance – New Jersey Stage
Tags: