Event will gather generations of the Holocaust
Statewide ‘celebration of survivors’ will urge ‘passing the torch’
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Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, says, “We want to gather more second- and third-generation support.”
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If you go
What: State-Wide Gathering of Generations of the Shoah
When: Sunday, June 10, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Where: Mercer County Community College, West Windsor
Cost: Free
Contact: Barbara Wind, Holocaust Council of MetroWest, 973-929-3066 or bwind@ujcnj.org
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May 16, 2012
Generations of families touched by the Holocaust are being invited to join in a statewide “celebration of survivors,” in West Windsor on Sunday, June 10.
The “Statewide Gathering of Generations of the Shoa” will be held at Mercer County Community College from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, said he expects 300 people from all parts of New Jersey to be in attendance.
In addition to survivors, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are encouraged to participate.
“We planned this program as a ‘passing the torch’ idea,” Winkler told NJ Jewish News in a May 10 phone interview. “The theme of the event is to generate activity among the generations of the Shoa toward continuing to tell the family’s Holocaust experience.”
Its main purpose, said Winkler, “is to inspire participants to learn about their own family experiences, to educate the future generations about the atrocities of the Holocaust and genocide, and share the need for tolerance and acceptance of all people.
“We wanted to have one statewide program so that these groups can gather more second- and third-generation support around the state.”
The program will begin in a room set up with tables marked with flags designating different countries. These will serve as gathering points for survivors from those places of origin and their families “so that they can meet old friends or new friends and their families,” said Winkler.
Michael Berenbaum, a rabbi and Holocaust historian, will be the day’s keynote speaker.
A former deputy director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, Berenbaum is project director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and director of its Holocaust Research Institute. He was a coproducer of One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story, which received an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Cable Ace Award. He was the chief historical consultant for another Oscar-winning Shoa-themed documentary, The Last Days.
Second- and third-generation participants will exhibit films, writings, and other works of art telling the survivors’ stories.
For the young children in attendance, a storyteller will be on hand “to teach about bullying and bias and prejudice,” Winkler said. A social worker will be available “to discuss some of the issues that arise when living with someone who went through the trauma of genocide.”
Barbara Wind, director of the Holocaust Council of MetroWest, is organizing free buses to take local participants to the conference in West Windsor.
“It is a celebration of the survivors, and certainly the survivors in our community contribute so much to educating students and teachers about the Holocaust. Their generosity has helped build the major museums, such as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as the Kean University Holocaust Center” as well as the council’s memorial on the Aidekman campus in Whippany. “So much of what we do depends on them,” she said.
Wind said she hoped the gathering would encourage “more of the second and third generation to step up to the plate as survivors are no longer able to go to schools and speak. It is a very good thing that this is happening.”
In addition to the commission, event sponsors are New Jersey Generations of the Shoah Organizations, New Jersey Jewish Family Service Agencies, New Jersey Network of Holocaust/Genocide Centers, and Mercer County Community College.
People who wish to register or seek more information can contact Winkler at holocaust@doe.state.nj.us.
Comments
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
May 18, 2012
Yasher Koach to my friend, Dr. Paul Winkler for organizing this event. I often write about the uniqueness of the Holocaust and state that the Holocaust is completely different from other Genocides. This position is controversial to some people. There are those who believe that the only way to preserve the memory of the Holocaust is by making it a universal lesson regarding the tribulations throughout the world. Whether I am right or wrong, only our children and grandchildren will know. Seventy five years from now, I predict that regardless of Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Museum, and all the other museums and books, the memory of the Holocaust will not be preserved. It will be regarded as just another Genocide in the history of genocides.
Unless we preserve the memory of the Holocaust and tie it to Jewish observance and ritual by including the Holocaust in prayer service or as I have done, creating a Holocaust Siddur and Haggadah (which is available free on line: holocausthaggadah.com) the Holocaust will become a mere date in history. It has to be tied into a revitalized Judaism to keep it alive.I for one, at this point in my life, no longer stress the pain, suffering and horrors of the Holocaust. Today I speak of the importance of learning about the heroic individuals who survived the Holocaust to make better lives for themselves and their families. Many Holocaust survivors have created synagogues, yeshivot and day schools and still support them financially. We need to learn about those who resisted the Nazis, not only about the crematoriums. The memory of the Holocaust will be kept alive by future generations if we have pride in the accomplishments of the survivors preserve Judaism.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
Paul
May 29, 2012
I look forward to many protesters coming to this spectacle. With all the atrocities taking place in the world, especially the middle east. It sickens the heart to see these people gathering to celebrate their elaborate lies and extortion on honest hard-working Americans. The most important thing is to stand up and not be swayed by their idle threats. Come down and let your voice be heard against these lying hypocrites. Help end the Israeli sponsored ethnic cleansing in Palestine.