Remembering the Holocaust

Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nissan on the Jewish calendar. It also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This year Yom Hashoah is May 5.

As a way to further students’ education of the Holocaust, 24 Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) seniors have been given the opportunity to travel to Poland. Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, principal of Judaic Studies, and HAFTR parent Martin Scharf coordinated the annual visit.

Shoshana Bach, Ashley Baruch, Henny Berkowitz, Andrew Bokor, Nery Braver, Caleb Brown, Hannah Chaikin, Tzvi Gettenberg, Alyson Glaubach, Jason Glaubach, Kelly Goldman, Shaindy Goldsmith, Tali Hofman, Yoni Kastner, Deena Kopyto, Ezra Lent, Yisroel Mindell, Coby Neumann, Chaya Oppen, Ayelet Rosenbloom, Allison Scharf, Yehuda Segelnick, Arielle Sharafi, and Jeremy Solomon embarked on the trip with Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, Rabbi Baruch Oppen and Rabbi Moshe Hubner on April 4.

The group is spending a week in the country visiting Auschwitz and other important and meaningful historical sites. During the trip, a film will be made to document the extraordinary experience. Students will voice their thoughts and feelings throughout the duration of their visit.

Another group of HAFTR students is commemorating the Holocaust by participating in the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County annual art contest. Each student submitted an art piece that is related to the theme “Reflecting Back, Looking Forward.”

Juniors Evie Blinder, Michal Engel, Rachel Friedman, Arielle Herman, Shelly Horowitz, Nicole Jacobs, Tami Noskow, Perrin Rudensky, Gila Schein, Kelly Wietschner and I entered the contest.

Each of us took a different approach to answer the prompt: “As a student today, think about how the past continues to influence you, your community, your nation, and the world. Your entry should make a clear connection to the past, present, and future.” For my piece, “We Remember,” I asked people of different professions and from different demographic backgrounds to describe how the Holocaust has affected them on a personal level.

I wrote all the answers I received in the letters of the words NEVER FORGET. In the background I painted two abandoned shoes from the 1940s. The winners of the contest will be announced on April 10, with an awards ceremony and the opening of the exhibit that will display all of the entries.