SPRING 2022- 5782

Dear Friends,

These past weeks remind us that “never again” remains “again and again” as an independent Ukraine struggles to maintain its freedom. These events challenge us to review the complex history of Ukraine, for ourselves and for our students. One suggested overview is How the War in Ukraine is Shaped by Its Past, a 40-minute film from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

April is our annual time of reflection through our observance of Yom HaShoah, the Days of Remembrance, and Genocide Awareness Month. The need for reflection must be undergirded with ongoing study, and we encourage you to explore new material online and in print.

Josey G. Fisher, Editor
Holocaust Education Consultant

COMMUNITY YOM HASHOAH PROGRAMS

Yom HaShoah, begins sundown Wednesday, April 27 - Thursday April 28

---

Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation
YELLOW CANDLE PROGRAM
Wednesday, April 27 l 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Virtual

Join together on Zoom to light our candles and remember the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust. To order candles and more information, see PHRF Yellow Candle

Part of the international Yellow Candle Project

---

Gratz College
SPEAKER, THE HONORABLE IRWIN COTLER
"The Holocaust Genocide and Human Rights: Universal Messages for the Preventing and Combatting of Mass Atrocity in Our Time”
Thursday, April 28 l 6:30 p.m.
Virtual

The Honorable Irwin Cotler, Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and Canada's Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. Followed by the presentation of the Gratz Medal and a special musical presentation. For details and registration, see Gratz Yom HaShoah Irwin Cotler

---

Yad Vashem, Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022
“Transports to Extinction: The Deportation of the Jews During the Holocaust”

An overview of the organization and implementation of the deportations as well as the deportee’s experience, including a letter thrown from a train. See Central Theme April 2022

For additional description of a transport from Drancy, see Drancy Deportation

---

Genocide Awareness Month - April
#Together We Remember Coalition

Thirty days of digital remembrance, learning, and activism. For list of partners & registration, see Together We Remember

__________

New Online Exhibitions at Yad Vashem

From Hope to Despair: The Story of the Horonczyk Family

Detailed account of six members of one family, supported by range of testimony, documents, photographs, and artifacts. Horonczyk Family

“Remember Your New Name”: Surviving the Holocaust under a False Identity

14 accounts of Jews who survived under false identities throughout Europe, supported by primary documents, testimony, photographs, artwork, and footage. False Identity

The Anguish of Liberation as Reflected in Art 1945-1947

A range of personal reactions from the moment of liberation to the anguish of loss. Includes works of child Thomas Geve and Soviet witness Zinovil Tolkatchev. Liberation as Reflected in Art

The Game of Their Lives: The Stories of Righteous Among the Nations Who Devoted Their Lives to Sport

Ten accounts of rescuers providing false papers, hiding, and escape at the risk of their lives and those of their families. Special exhibit in honor of 2022 Olympics. The Game of Their Lives

__________

Suggested Books for Middle School and Above

When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers by Ken Krimstein. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) A graphic narrative exploring interwar teenage Jewish life based on diaries rescued by YIVO on the brink of war and hidden in the cellar of a Lithuanian church. Award-winning graphic artist captures both their dreams and angst before their tragic fate.

Boy from Buchenwald by Robbie Waisman and Susan McClelland. (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2021). Suffering from extreme trauma, the author and 472 other boys, including Elie Wiesel, were brought to a home for rehabilitation post-war by Albert Einstein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter. Romek Wajsman, now Robbie Waisman, humanitarian and Canadian governor general award recipient, details his torturous past and his recovery as one of “The Buchenwald Boys”.

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos (Young Readers’ edition) by Judy Batalion (HarperCollins, 2021). Award-winning adaptation of Batalion’s narrative of brave Jewish women who served as served as couriers, caretakers, and fighters in wartime Poland.

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron. (Scholastic Press, 2020) A Polish Christian teen and her young sister hide 13 Jews in their attic while two Nazis live in the lower floors. An award-winning novel based on the true story of Stefania Podgórska, honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem as well as The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL PROGRAMMING

58th ANNUAL PHILADELPHIA HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CEREMONY
Sunday, April 24 l 1:30 p.m.
In-person and virtual
Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza
16^th Street at the Ben Franklin Parkway

Commemorate the six million Jews who perished in the Shoah and honor the survivors living in our communities. The ceremony will include candle lighting, music, readings, and prayers.

Note: If weather does not permit an in-person, outdoor event, the ceremony will still be available streamed live on Facebook.

Updates & Facebook Live Stream

__________

SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR EDUCATORS

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)
The 2022 Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Educators
Monday, June 27-Wednesday June 29, virtual

Free 3-day conference for teachers unfamiliar with the resources available through the USHMM. Educators earn 24 professional development hours and free resource bundle.

---

Appalachian State University - Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium
“Film and Photography During and After the Holocaust”
July 23-28, 2022, onsite or virtual

Details and registration, App State Summer 2022

---

Yad Vashem Summer Seminars

Educators in Jewish Day Schools
June 27-July 12, onsite at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

For Information & application, see Yad Vashem Day Schools

Educators in Jewish Supplemental Programs
July 25-August 2, onsite at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

For information & application, see Yad Vashem Supplemental Programs

---

Facing History and Ourselves

For professional development calendar, including online options, see Facing History Calendar

__________

Suggested Books for High School and Adult Readers

Into the Forest by Rebecca Frankel. (St. Martin’s Press, 2021) Gripping narrative of the Rabinowitz family’s flight from the Polish town of Zhetel to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest where they survived for two brutal years until liberation. Smithsonian 2021 winner, National Jewish Book Award 2021 Finalist.

The Sisters of Auschwitz: The True Story of Two Jewish Sisters’ Resistance in the Heart of Nazi Territory by Roxane van Iperen. (Harper, 2021) Two Dutch Jewish sisters organize a cultural safehouse in the woods below Amsterdam where political debate, Yiddish music and the arts flourish for 18 months until they are betrayed. Deported together with the Frank family, the two sisters watch over Margot and Anne in Bergen-Belsen, barely surviving themselves.

The Night of Broken Glass: Eyewitness Accounts of Kristallnacht, co-edited by Uta Gerhardt and Thomas Karlauf. (Polity, 2021) A rare collection of eyewitness testimonies done in 1939 by Harvard sociologist Edward Hartshorne, previously unpublished. Refugees describe the horrors of the pogrom, as yet unaware of what lay ahead. Introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Holocaust survivor Saul Friedlaender.

Americans and the Holocaust: A Reader, eds. Daniel Greene and Edward Phillips. (Rutgers University Press, 2021) Well-curated companion volume to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibition Americans and the Holocaust. Over 100 primary sources from newspapers, magazines, government records, and materials from popular culture illustrate how Americans debated their responsibility to respond Nazism. Published in association with the USHMM. For digital exhibition, see USHMM Americans and the Holocaust

2100 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
United States
info@jewishphilly.org
215.832.0500

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia mobilizes financial and volunteer resources to address the communities' most critical priorities locally, in Israel and around the world.

The full inclusion of people of all abilities is of the highest priority to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and every attempt will be made to ensure all individuals can partake in our programming. Reply if you require assistance.