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The Report Teach your children Issue 4 Winter 2020 REMEMBERING THE YOUNGEST VICTIMS Anne Frank was one of 1 5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis This year the March of the Living pays special tribute to them INSIDE THIS ISSUE Blind love in a place of blind hate Holocaust survivors shine at Dinner of Miracles MOTL alumni issue declaration against anti Semitism In the Shoah s shadow

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF A TRIBUTE TO THE YOUNGEST VICTIMS Honoring the memory of the 1 5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis E children were always in most ach year the March of the societies and conflicts kept Living selects a central out of the fighting and killing theme linked to the Holprocess ocaust The purpose is to draw Not with the brutal Nazis attention to specific aspects of In their genocidal lust they this horrific chapter of history didn t care treating children as that should always be rememthey treated adults bered As we often if not worse No say never forget mercy for infants This year the or children With March is dedicatboundless hatred ed to the children they directed their who perished in savagery and hatred the Holocaust All against Jews of all of us should honor ages the memory of the We should for1 5 million young ever remember that people killed by the Aharon Aharale Tamir 1 5 million children perished for Nazis no reason they were far too In this context I would like to present our national poet young to be blamed for doing something wrong They were toHaim Nachman Bialik who tally innocent except in the eyes years before the Holocaust of Nazis for whom they were wrote a poem after pogroms guilty of being Jews and as such against Jews I m citing just one punishable by death sentence from the poem that is Today 75 years since the enough to evoke what happened liberation of Auschwitz we have more than 75 years ago to Jews an obligation to remember them in Europe including children The revenge for the blood of a small child even the devil has not yet invented These few words say it all The Report Chairman and CEO DR SHMUEL ROSENMAN President PHYLLIS GREENBERG HEIDEMAN Editor in Chief AHARON AHARALE TAMIR Advisory Board ELI RUBENSTEIN ARIANA HEIDEMAN TIPOGRAPH Editor ROBERT SARNER The International March of the Living Report is published by the International March of the Living We welcome letters comments from readers Please send them to motl motlmail org or International March of the Living Attention Editor in Chief 2 West 45th Street Suite 1500 New York New York 10036 USA Tel 212 869 6800 www motl org 2 Photo Ryan Blau Design Production AVIV SARNER AFARGAN girls and boys religious and secular all of them children The loss is incalculable Just think how many more prominent people the Jewish world would have now if this huge number of children hadn t been murdered How many future Nobel Prize winners professors educators doctors people of culture and many other talents were lost How many would have created families have children grandchildren and have a full life while contributing to society Life in the concentration and death camps was a nightmare Many children fought against this hellish situation against the pervasive fear against the constant hunger and appalling health conditions and the frightening thought what will happen to me the following morning Despite all the atrocities and adversity many children took the lead and established learning sessions painting and drawing workshops writing and other activities The aim was not to lose hope to keep relatively healthy to help stay alive they had great hope they would survive To learn more about The Children of the Holocaust we suggest you visit Yad Vashem The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem Lohamei HaGeta ot Ghetto Fighters House in northern Israel and other museums outside Israel with special sections devoted to this topic Such visits will give you further insight into the life of children during the Holocaust The only thing we can do at this point is to honor these children embrace each of them virtually and join all people who promote tolerance and are committed to fighting anti Semitism and Holocaust denial This will pay tribute to the young Holocaust victims and help ensure such a catastrophe will not happen again Aharon Aharale Tamir Deputy World Chairman MOTL

CALENDAR DATES WORTH NOTING A list of MOTL highlights from recent and upcoming events 2019 March 17 Thessaloniki Greece Participation in traditional ceremony and March to remember victims of Thessaloniki MOTL representative addressed the ceremony in the old train station which was the deportation point to Auschwitz April 16 Budapest Hungary March in city streets and commemoration ceremony in tribute to the 450 000 Hungarian Jews deported in 1944 to Auschwitz where they were murdered May 1 Krakow Poland Conference of young leadership on strategy of combating anti Semitism Several Polish students also participated May 2 Auschwitz Poland Main event of 2019 March of the Living May 9 Israel Start of Israeli portion of March of the Living trip June 2 New York City USA MOTL float in annual Celebrate Israel Parade honoring Israel Sept 18 Budapest Hungary Regional education seminar Sept 24 Vilnius Lithuania Educational conference for teachers with cooperation of schools Oct 7 Auschwitz Poland Event to remember the uprising of the Zander Commando Nov 7 New York USA Kristallnacht Commemoration at the Museum of Jewish Heritage Nov 16 Zagreb Croatia Conference visit to Holocaust sites and meeting with high ranking officials involved in Holocaust history and combating anti Semitism Dec 29 30 Poland and Israel Visit of 35 UN ambassadors to Holocaust sites in Poland followed by visit to Israel 2020 Jan 8 Warsaw Poland Meeting with the president of Poland together with the leaders of the Jewish community Jan 20 21 Krakow and Auschwitz Poland European Jewish Association meetings on occasion of 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau Jan 22 New York USA Launch of By Chance Alone with Author and MOTL Survivor Max Eisen at the Museum of Jewish Heritage Jan 23 Yad Vashem Jerusalem International conference and summit to commemorate 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to discuss ways to combat anti Semitism xenophobia and hatred Jan 27 Auschwitz Birkenau Poland International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Gathering of more than 50 heads of state and hundreds of Holocaust survivors Feb 3 Tel Aviv Israel Think Tank of the Future March of the Living Alumni Meet up Feb 11 12 Boca Raton Florida Operation committee and MOTL Board meetings Feb 22 Vienna Austria Meeting about anti Semitism in European countries March 10 Skopje Bitola and Shtip North Macedonia Symposium visits and March in Bitola March 15 Poland various museums Seminar about methods of visiting Holocaust sites March 17 Thessaloniki Greece Commemoration symposium and March Mar 20 Jerusalem Israel First MOTL sponsored team in The Jerusalem Marathon April 16 Budapest Hungary March of the Living public march and ceremony April 18 Tel Aviv Israel Workshop for the March management team April 20 Krakow Poland Continuation of seminar and conference about combating anti Semitism for MOTL young leadership April 21 Auschwitz Birkenau Poland Main event of 2020 March of The Living Visit to Poland starts on April 17 and finishes on April 27 April 28 until May 4 March of the Living arrives in Israel for second half of MOTL trip June 7 2020 New York City USA MOTL float in annual Celebrate Israel Parade honoring Israel Ongoing Hungary Mobile MOTL Holocaust exhibition called The Wagon IN MEMORIAM AN INCALCULABLE LOSS Grieving the passing in recent months of survivors who played key roles in MOTL activities over the years E ach year the March of the Living honors those who perished in the Holocaust and those who survived Since 1988 more than 300 survivors have shared their first hand experiences with participants on the MOTL Those participants have become the witnesses for the witnesses Sadly in each successive year we lose more survivors with their passing Each in his or her own way made an impact on the lives of so many We spotlight here several survivors who died in 2019 after having contributed considerably to MOTL by way of their participation over the years BEN FINKEL March 23 1930 Sept 2 2019 Was born in Manyevicz Poland Traveled with Montreal on 2016 MOTL where he celebrated the Bar Mitzvah he could not have as young boy in Poland ROBERT BOB GEMINDER Aug 3 1935 Jan 27 2019 Was born in Wroclaw Poland He traveled with BJE Los Angeles for many years LILI BINSTOCK May 11 1928 Oct 22 2019 Was born in Warsaw She traveled with the Broward County Florida Region for many years BRANKO LUSTIG June 10 1932 Nov 14 2019 Was born in Osijek Croatia During the 2011 MOTL Lustig celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at Auschwitz MICHAEL MARDER July 3 1925 Dec 11 2019 Was born in Nisco Poland He traveled with the US Southern Region in 2003 and the Miami March from 2010 2014 MARCEL SPIEGLER Sept 22 1926 July 6 2019 Was born in Czernowitz Romania He traveled with the US Southern Region in 2007 We apologize for any inadvertent omissions View the March of the Living Holocaust Survivors Database at motl org survivors 3

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT MAKING AN IMPACT A special initiative we created in 2018 to engage and educate global leaders is now bearing fruit helping make the world a better place I t is an honor to serve as President of the International March of the Living at the beginning of 2020 the Year of Vision Vision has always been a fundamental goal for MOTL an organization committed to studying and teaching the history of the Holocaust and examining the roots of prejudice intolerance and hatred I believe we must learn the lessons of the past to build a better future Since our inception in 1988 our annual educational program has brought almost 300 000 participants from 52 countries to Poland and Israel In the Spring our upcoming 32nd journey will continue our proud tradition of Holocaust education as we march from Auschwitz to Birkenau on April 21 and in Jerusalem from Kikar Safra Safra Square to the Kotel on April 29 In addition to our commitment to leaders of tomorrow in 2018 we began an important initiative to engage and educate global leaders of today In 2020 for the third consecutive March and fifth mission including two winter journeys we will lead a delegation of UN ambassadors from around the world These combat misinformation journeys begin with the ambasThese visits to Poland and sadors participating in Poland Israel help participating diplobefore touring Israel and attend mats influential leaders in their ing official meetings throughout own nations understand Jewish the country Since the inception history and the horrors of the of this initiative we have collab Holocaust Just as thousands of orated with Ambassador Danny youth annually attend the March Danon Israel s representative of the Living and visit Nazi to the UN and the American Zi concentration camps before travonist Movement to eling to Israel we lead ambassadors strive to provide representing 66 these ambassadors countries on these with the same most important powerful experimissions ence but one that The UN also contemplates remains a crititheir power to cal battleground effectuate change during this period In one inof rising global stance we brought anti Semitism ambassadors to an Phyllis Greenberg Heideman army base at the as for years it has served as a forum for the Israel Gaza border to witness generation and dissemination of trucks delivering humanitarian anti Semitic propaganda masked aid to the Palestinian populaas criticism of Israel I recall tion living under Hamas rule being an NGO delegate to the Several ambassadors expressed UN Conference on Women in surprise at what they were Nairobi and the UN Conference seeing as it contradicted that on Racism in Durban South which they are told in New Africa Both were hatefests York One ambassador inquired against Israel There is no doubt why the trucks return empty that hate often stems from given the inefficiency of unused ignorance and it is our goal to capacity We explained the only thing Israel wants from Gaza is peace and that doesn t fit on a truck A simple statement that rings true From these efforts we see tremendous progress In 2019 a myriad of Israel demonizing resolutions received fewer votes in favor and more votes against than ever before The ambassadors who have participated in our delegations are leading the charge Israel has seen more favorable voting from most of the MOTL participating countries for at least one of the targeted resolutions including significant support on some of the most important resolutions Participating countries Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Lithuania Romania and Slovakia are among the European states that since 2018 have for the first time voted against the annual resolution to fund the UN s anti Israel Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat This progress reinforces my firm belief that the world is a better place because of the important work we do at the International March of the Living For this I applaud commend and thank each of you involved in helping this organization to make a difference Phyllis Greenberg Heideman President MOTL UN ambassadors at Majdanek UN ambassadors visit Auschwitz 4

BLIND LOVE IN A PLACE OF BLIND HATE Documentary film movingly captures how the sight impaired participate in the March of the Living and their perception of what they see By ELI RUBENSTEIN Blind filmgoers and their guide dogs attend Blind Love screening at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre I n the past when I would visit Israel I d often meet blind people at the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind in my role as Chairman of the charity s Canadian branch When the center s clients found out I was also the National Director of the March of the Living in Canada many expressed an interest in coming on the trip to Poland I must admit I was initially puzzled by their request Why did they want to come How could they become a witness to events of the Shoah if they can t see Of course as I would later learn from them during the trip there are many ways of seeing And in some ways the blind participants perceived more than sighted people did during their experience in Poland For one sees not just with one s eyes but with one s entire being especially with one s heart I also observed how important the experience was to them to feel included in humanity in Am Yisrael They also felt they had an important role on the trip to grieve for their lost family members to learn about the Shoah in the very place it unfolded and to teach others about their experience The whole premise of the film Blind Love is based on two little known facts One the first victims killed by the Nazis were not Jews but people with disabilities The Nazis murdered up to 250 000 disabled men and women calling them life unfit for life Two the Nazis often trained dogs to torture and sometimes kill Jewish prisoners In light of this we brought a group of blind people on the March of the Living to teach the world two opposite lessons The first we are working to create a society in which all people are included where those with disabilities are considered equal and valued members of the human family The second we don t train dogs to torture people we train dogs to help people For me one of the film s most touching moments is when Liron Artzi breaks down in the former gas chamber in Majdanek and falls to her knees sobbing Her dog then licks the tears from her eyes blind love in a place of blind hate As anyone who s ever been in the presence of a blind person and his her companion dog can attest such affection is perhaps the truest purest and most sincere form of love one can experience That s what one sees in that moment of the film And that s what inspired the film s title Last fall the same day Blind Love was screened in Johannesburg South Africa it was also shown in Canada in Kingston Ontario where March of the Living volunteers professional staff and survivors had gathered at a national chaperone training weekend The Shabbaton gives these leaders and educators tools to guide students on the 2020 MOTL as well as create a bond between the Canadian adults accompanying the students on the March If you re confronted by Holocaust deniers tell them that blind people accompanied by their service dogs can see and feel the evidence of the Holocaust even though they are blind said survivor and Toronto resident Sol Nayman with tears in his eyes after viewing the film But Holocaust deniers are blind to the Holocaust even though they can see with their own eyes The movie about the blind marchers from Israel was certainly the program highlight for me at this Shabbaton Broadly there are two central questions about the Holocaust often asked Why did it happen How do we respond to it The first question as important as it is may never be fully answered We may never know why the Holocaust happened but we do know how to respond to it The Nazis wanted to use race religion and culture to divide people We celebrate the diverse religions and cultures that populate our world as a source of joy and pride The Nazis championed brute force and power We build a world based on kindness compassion and empathy The Nazis descended to levels of inhumanity never before even imagined We celebrate our common humanity The Nazis wanted to build a world of endless hatred We are building a world of endless love As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook the first Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine famously argued it s sinat chinam needless hatred that will destroy the world But it can also be saved through ahavat chinam love for no reason And for me this is the essence of the film s message Blind love is the only answer to blind hatred 5

ULTIMATE INNOCENCE IN THE FACE OF ULTIMATE EVIL S This year s March of the Living to focus on the plight of children during the Shoah By ELI RUBENSTEIN ince its inception the March of the Living s main focus has been its young teenage participants the leaders of tomorrow It s they who will be building and creating a new world for the next generation Thus it s appropriate that a major theme of the 2020 March of the Living concentrates on the plight of children during the Shoah With each passing year more of the survivors joining the MOTL were hidden children many infants or small children during the war years Of the survivors of the camps still attending the March almost all were in their early to mid teens during the Shoah As a result survivors are now telling stories to young people on the MOTL about their own experiences in Europe when they weren t much younger than most MOTL participants While the cruel fate of all victims of the Shoah is undeniable the plight of the children was especially tragic In a world where in the natural order of things adults are sup 6 posed to take care of children a society of grown ups wholeheartedly embraced the murder of children whose parents were often forced to look on helpless in the face of their own children s suffering Historians remind us that one of the Shoah s most unprecedented aspects was its scope Nobody was to be spared no matter how old or how young But for the Nazis their genocidal zeal especially targeted young Jewish boys and girls for they represented the continuity of the Jewish people In one of a myriad of heartbreaking Holocaust accounts involving children we read about a mass murder where Jewish parents and children are shoved into a pit by German soldiers some shot and

some simply buried alive As this horrific scene unfolds an innocent Jewish girl asks her parent Why is this person kicking dirt in my eyes unable to even imagine the unfathomable evil that she was confronting This perhaps sums up the fate of Jewish children during the Shoah Ultimate innocence in the face of ultimate evil Of course even the children who survived the Shoah suffered emotional scars some of which they carried with them their entire lives Hiding often involved complicated situations during and after the war as many separated from their rescuers and returned to broken communities and broken families Some children lost their entire identity in hiding which later wasn t always easy to restore Many children had no normal baseline with which to compare and no memories of childhood and sometimes even of their parents The lack of these foundations and the wartime reality made it difficult to readjust Some never did remaining broken people Rabbi Israel Meir Lau who has attended every March of the Living since the first one in 1988 was only two years old when the war broke out and eight years at his liberation He often shares this story on the March After the liberation of Buchenwald I stayed there for a while I was wandering around the camp free and fearless when I saw the Weimar residents mostly women and elderly men Suddenly a command car stopped next to me and a giant American soldier lifted me Gripping my heels in one hand and my shoulder with the other he raised me high in the air and shouted in German to the Weimar residents Do you see this little boy This is who you have been fighting for the past six years Because of him you started a world war He is the enemy of national socialism the Nazis archenemy A little Polish boy You murdered his father and mother and you almost murdered him as well You followed the Fuhrer for this You followed him in blind faith for this Of course along with focusing on the suffering of children during the Shoah we will also commemorate the heroism courage and bravery so many Jewish children exhibited during the war We will honor the children who took part in armed resistance such as in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the children who smuggled food into the ghettos for their families We will pay tribute to those like Anne Frank who resisted in their own way by writing eloquently about their thoughts and feelings during the Kingdom of Night During the 2020 March of the Living we will remember Anne Frank along with the more than one million Jewish children killed in the Shoah We will remind our young participants of this quote from her diary How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world These are words we hope all young Marchers take to heart as they take the lessons of the March and build a better world for all humanity PLEASE AND THANK YOU Donor support helps International March of the Living continue its vital work teaching Holocaust history to people around the world while strengthening Jewish identity and connections to Israel Please consider making a donation online at motl org donate or call 1 212 869 6800 The International March of the Living is a non profit charity organization All contributions are deductible to the fullest extent of applicable tax law Our Tax ID is 22 326 1085 7

RISING TO THE OCCASION M New initiative enlists 21 exemplary MOTL alumni for Emerging Leaders program who issued an eloquent declaration against anti Semitism racism and intolerance By BARUCH ADLER ore than 75 years ago in Zborow in occupied Ukraine my mother Eva Halperin then a young woman was given shelter by Anton Sukhinsky who risked his life to save her and six other Jews all from the same town The courageous rescue of my mother and the fate of so many other Jews who did not survive the Shoah were among the main reasons I became involved in the March of the Living program when it first began in 1988 How do we teach our young people the history of the Shoah and to be on guard against the ever present dangers of anti Semitism and racism How do we inspire the world to stand up against injustice and follow in the footsteps of the courageous man who saved my mother s life And finally how do we impart to our own people and the world the necessity for the Jewish people to have their own homeland the state of Israel For the last 30 years we on the March of the Living have been doing just that creating an entire generation of young Jewish women and men who have an intimate knowledge of the Shoah and a deep connection to Israel while at the same time teaching the broader world and creating allies among the non Jewish population Indeed since its inception nearly 300 000 people have taken part in the March of the Living and walked down that notorious path between Auschwitz and Birkenau on Yom HaShoah As proud as we are of our achievements we know even the most noble initiatives can benefit from new ideas and grow in a positive direction This need to evolve be8 came especially urgent as we in the Jewish world witnessed a dramatic rise in Anti Semitism most significantly in Europe and the Americas fueled by attacks from both the extreme left and the extreme right Like a virus passed on from generation to generation this explosion and morphing of anti Semitism from both the extreme left especially on university campuses and the extreme right has sent shock waves throughout the Jewish world But this old new anti Semitism has also galvanized the Jewish community to fight back At March of the Living we believe we need to respond urgently to this crisis by educating and empowering our young and by creating allies among our non Jewish friends Shouting Never Again no matter how many times is no longer sufficient Decisive action is needed In light of this in 2018 I approached members of the International March of the Living s Board with a new initiative which much to my satisfaction was greeted with great enthusiasm We all realized the same thing we have amazing young people many of them future leaders who have been participating in the MOTL for the last 30 years They represent an exceptional resource with great potential to have an impact on their local communities and the entire world We wanted to channel the energies of these young people to fulfill one of the MOTL s main goals to fight the rising tide of anti Semitism and racism and to combat the continuous demonization and vilification of Israel We decided to create a follow up program for a select group of MOTL alumni the cream of the crop from Jewish communities around the world that we called International March of the Living Emerging Leadership Conference on the Shoah and Combating Anti Semitism Racism and Intolerance ELC Noah Tradonsky Baruch Adler and Hallie Goldstein holding Declaration Baruch Adler speaking at New York s Museum of Jewish Heritage Baruch Adler Noah Tradonsky Hallie Goldstein Phyllis Greenberg Heideman Tali Danon Danny Danon and UN Secretary General Ant nio Guterres

21 Emerging Leaders and staff in Krakow Poland Dr Ruth Westheimer Phyllis Greenberg Heideman Hallie Goldstein Noah Tradonsky and Baruch Adler In late 2018 we reached out to our MOTL communities asking for the best and brightest of their most recent alumni as possible candidates for the first inaugural ELC program It was important to us that these young people be as diverse as possible female and male religious and secular from Europe North America Central America South America South Africa and Australia We created a framework where participants would feel empowered by their experience to not only deliver a message on the actual March of the Living that they created themselves but to also encourage them to take the next steps as a fol Timely Words Charged with Meaning Young leaders at conference focus on troubling rise in global anti Semitism racism and intolerance and issue their response at March of the Living event J together Jews and non Jews alike we must not ust ahead of the main March of the Living remain idle in the face of evil no matter its form ceremony on Yom HaShoah at Auschwitz or expression last May a select group of young leaders It has been said The path to Auschwitz from around the world gathered in Krakow Powas built by hatred but paved by indifference land for the First International March of the Living We have the ethical obligation not only as Emerging Leadership Conference on the Shoah Jews but as human beings to transform the world and Combating Anti Semitism and Intolerance we see into a place where we want to In response to disturbing events be Reaching that goal requires us to around the world these young men understand that simply refraining from and women prepared an eloquent evil will not allow our vision to reach proclamation against anti Semitism fruition for it is in the active pursuit of racism and intolerance which three goodness and the relentless search for of their representatives read out loud kindness that humanity may fulfill its to all those assembled at the MOTL potential event With this declaration we vow to It was also read by two of the Noah Tradonsky be builders of the future not victims of the past leaders Hallie Goldstein Noah Tradonsky at and here today we pledge to Stand tall in the a special Kristallnacht program at New York s Museum of Jewish Heritage in Nov 2019 Among face of bigotry raise our voice against anti Semthe other speakers were Baruch Adler Noah itism speak out against racism and commit to Tradonsky Hallie Goldstein Phyllis Greenberg loving all our neighbors as ourselves Heideman Danny Danon and Ant nio Guterres We are the Jewish people Herewith the content of the declaration Signatories in alphabetical order We are the Jewish people Galit Alboukrek USA Ilan Attie Picker We have always been a small nation with Mexico Grant Besner USA Caitlin Brand a resonating voice Our 4 000 year old story is Australia Kurt Brown Australia Sharon Deift rich with love and triumph though rife with hatred USA Ye ela Eilon Heber Canada Sharon and tragedy In places near and far innumerable Ghelman USA David Goldenberg Canada uncountable there and here we have known Hallie Goldstein USA Samantha Khavin anti Semitism Targeted chased expelled isoAustralia Rafael Kruchin Brazil Izzy Lenga United Kingdom Alberto Levy Panama Barry lated killed and nearly exterminated Pechet Canada Eial Rosenzvit Argentina We are the Jewish people Imbar Slavat Canada Sydney Stupp USA We knew anti Semitism then and we know Noah Tradonsky South Africa Stina Ulbrich it today Acts of anti Semitism and all types of Germany Eyal Weintraub Argentina And the hatred are further spreading the destructive participants of the 2019 March of the Living impact of intolerance Standing here today low up to this experience We ended up with 21 outstanding young leaders from across the globe who joined us in Poland on the 2019 MOTL as well as for two days of intense meetings and seminars In our follow up study 90 of the participants gave the ELC a highly positive review reflecting the calibre of participants and the quality of the program One of the most moving moments of the 2019 March was when these 21 leaders stood on stage at the end of the Yom HaShoah ceremony after Holocaust survivors had just recited the Kaddish and three of the young representatives read the ELC Declaration on Anti Semitism Racism and Intolerance following which Hatikvah was sung with the young leaders still on the stage For many of them standing on the stage in Auschwitz Birkenau and singing Hatikvah before thousands of people was one of the proudest moments of their lives For us in the audience watching these 21 leaders on the stage read their just crafted declaration and then sing Hatikvah was like watching the passing of the torch of Jewish memory and Jewish leadership from one generation to the next I recommend you read the eloquent words of the Declaration prepared by these 21 exceptional young leaders which are featured below I m confident you ll be as moved and inspired as I was Baruch Adler is Vice Chairman of the International March of the Living 9

CARRYING LESSONS OF THE PAST FORWARD As the number of survivors dwindles an initiative in Canada aimed at keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive brings together young people and the last cohort of those who lived through one of the most catastrophic chapters in Jewish history By ROBERT SARNER 10 Dinner of Miracles photos Liora Kogan O n a cold December evening in Toronto in an elegantly decorated ballroom at the Beth Emeth synagogue 45 elderly Holocaust survivors watched as 300 young adults stood solemn faced reading aloud from small cards We are the generations born after the darkness they recited in unison as part of the annual Dinner of Miracles Through the memories of these survivors words and silence we are linked to that annihilated Jewish existence whose echoes permeate our existence We pledge to remember We shall tell the world of the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights which were attained even in hell itself We affirm our commitment to the furtherance of Jewish life It was a poignant moment that evoked the no longer distant day when there ll be no more survivors and the responsibility to preserve the memory of the Holocaust will pass to those now in their 20s and 30s It s these young people the Dinner of Miracles engages alongside those old enough to be their grandparents or great grandparents At the event organized by Toronto s UJA Federation attendees heard harrowing first hand testimony from men and women who somehow defied Hitler s genocidal onslaught against Jews in Europe The event which marked the 15th anniversary of the Dinner of Miracles took place just before Chanukah and January s 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz The central part involved survivors and attendees sitting at dinner tables at which the former spoke about their Holocaust experiences sometimes with photos or a tablet Despite the subject matter the evening exuded a human life affirming quality Its almost celebratory atmosphere everyone danced the hora at one point was sharply juxtaposed with the nightmares survivors endured as children or adolescents For me this is a joyful event says Rose Lipsyc 90 half way through the Dinner her third in recent years I don t feel guilty I survived the Nazis I don t know why some survivors say they feel guilty they survived Why should I feel guilty I didn t commit a crime Why shouldn t I be happy I was alive when the Holocaust ended and still alive today Born in Lublin Poland Lipsyc escaped a forced deportation in 1942 and survived the rest of the Holocaust under a false identity working for three years as a Polish laborer in Germany Her parents and two brothers were murdered by the Nazis It s wonderful to speak to young people at these dinners and teach them what happened during the Holocaust which maybe some will remember says Lipsyc whose energy and spirit belie her age It s also nice that people here make a big deal about us and look up to us They know that with so few of us survivors left tomorrow there might be none left Lipsyc took a circuitous route from Europe to Canada after being liberated by the British army in 1945 Three years later she settled in Israel before moving to Canada in 1952 In total Canada received about 40 000 Holocaust survivors following World War 2 in addition to 3 000 Nazi war criminals few of whom Ottawa ever deported or brought to justice Today Canada is home to less than 5 000 survivors all of them in the twilight of their lives Those at the event mostly in their 80s and 90s varied in their health and physical agility but share a common fate of survival against all odds They feel a responsibility to share their war time experiences with others while they still can usually with much dignity and little rancor despite the trauma suffering and profound sense of loss they endured The passage of time doesn t diminish the pathos of their stories The dinner was the tenth for Joe Mandel who was born in 1924 in Czechoslovakia and spent the first part of the war in a forced labor battalion of the Hungarian army After the Germans invaded and occupied Hungary he was sent to several camps including Dachau and Mauthausen from which he survived a death march to Gunskirchen in Austria where he was liberated on May 4 1945 by American soldiers I come here every year because I want to tell anyone who will listen how people can hate others and that it s such a bad thing to hate people

simply because they re Jewish or something like that says Mandel 96 who still speaks at public schools about the Holocaust It s important for me to tell people about my experience of what happened before and during the war It gives me a feeling of hope that after people listen they ll try to do better things than what s happening now in the world Many attendees were returnees and had participated in the MOTL Sasha Stackle who works in corporate finance has attended almost every Dinner since 2009 It s incredible to have an intimate conversation with a survivor says Stackle 32 As a generation fortunate to hear these first hand accounts it s our responsibility to pass them forward and ensure all future generations know what happened so something as horrifying as the Holocaust doesn t happen again Reverence and respect were evident in the way attendees related to the survivors in their midst almost as if they were larger than life figures who had emerged from the pages of a history book Two tables stood out for being hosted by a pair of survivors instead of one In both cases they were married couples who started dating only after each had survived the Holocaust and moved to Canada Nancy and Howard Kleinberg captivated their table with their extraordinary story that s received extensive media coverage over the years They first met as teenagers in 1945 at the Bergen Belsen concentration camp He was near death and she nursed him back to life before they both went their separate ways after the camp was liberated Two years later each ended up in Toronto unbeknownst to the other Eventually they would reunite marry and start a family The survivors are amazing people who inspire me says Jonathan Vandersluis 34 a management consultant attending his sixth Dinner I m always super impressed to hear their perspectives and how despite going through one of the darkest times in Jewish history they later rebuilt their lives and created families in a new country It s special to listen to and learn from and helps put some of the struggles we go through on a day to day basis more in perspective For Sherri Ettedgui and Shawna Samuel attending the event was anything but another night out Having co founded the Dinner of Miracles in 2004 the two friends take pride in how it s taken root since its inception To their knowledge it s the only such event in the world What makes this especially unique is that it s specifically just survivors and young adults says Ettedgui 39 who worked for March of the Living Canada for 13 years until 2018 We always ensured attendees weren t children of survivors or of that generation but rather the next generation That relationship between survivors and the third generation is very special Ettedgui and Samuel conceived of the idea after noticing a dearth of opportunities for young adults to speak to survivors in an informal setting We called it Dinner of Miracles because we planned it around Chanukah time and so with the miracle of Chanukah and the miracle of survivors surviving the Shoah we combined the two to make it more meaningful says Samuel 39 who s worked in Jewish community organizations for 16 years and is now at the UJA Our thinking was let s do a nice evening for the survivors let s honor them let s have at each table a survivor and a moderator and fill the rest of the seats with young adults Since then we ve stayed true to this concept At this year s dinner one of the videos quoted the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Eli Wiesel who urged people to carry the lessons of the Holocaust forward He stressed the ideal of saving what the past has to offer for the future and once famously said Whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness At 87 Pinhas Gutter was one of the more active witnesses at the 2019 Dinner Born in Lodz Poland he was 10 years old when he and his family were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Majdanek concentration camp The first day there Nazis killed his parents and twin sister Later after surviving typhus and starvation and working as a slave laborer in a German arms factory he was sent to Buchenwald followed by captivity in other camps and a death march to Theresienstadt where he was liberated by the Russian army on May 8 1945 Being here this evening means everything to me says Gutter who later lived in Britain France Israel Brazil and South Africa before immigrating to Canada in 1985 Seeing a room full of Jews especially young adults who are interested in hearing about the Holocaust and perpetuating its memory and making the world a better place with no hate is important to me The last thing we want is hate because hate begets hate begets hate begets hate We must remember what can happen what might happen and what shouldn t happen Gutter has already set his sights on the day when he and other survivors won t be around to bear witness He appears as a hologram in a virtual conversation in Dimensions in Testimony created by the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation which will allow future generations to speak with and learn from survivors Excerpted from an article in The Times of Israel TURN THE PAGE FOR A PHOTO SPREAD OF DINNER OF MIRACLES 11

DINNER OF MIRACLES CONNECTING HOLOCAUST SUR 12

DINNER OF MIRACLES RVIVORS WITH YOUNG ADULTS 13

FACING A NEW OLD HATRED WE SHALL NOT BE DEFEATED L True to form the 2019 March of the Living s main event proved a highly poignant experience for all those in attendance focusing not only on a tragic past but also on a worrisome present By ELI RUBENSTEIN ast spring the 2019 March of the Living focused on several significant themes These included the rise of racism and anti Semitism in the world empowering young people to fight intolerance and the tragic history of Greek Jews in Thessaloniki one of the world s oldest Jewish communities that was almost completely wiped out by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust In his opening remarks at the main event at Auschwitz Dr Shmuel Rosenman Chairman of the International March of the Living IMOTL said In 1939 80 years ago World War Two began with the brutal invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany This attack was followed by six years of unimaginable brutality and the deadliest war in world history a war that spelled the end of so many Jewish communities in Europe In taking part in the March of the Living on this Yom HaShoah you are march ing at a time when a growing wave of anti Semitism is yet again sweeping the world He lamented that the scourge of anti Jewish hatred has persisted In truth anti Semitism never really disappeared Dr Rosenman added It simply lay barely hidden under the surface waiting for another time to strike again But today we proclaim to our enemies with a loud and clear voice We shall not be defeated For a video of the 2019 MOTL ceremony go to https www youtube com playlist list PLDjofQRyRwpcsezs2pYejQnwV06zH__Ep 14 We will return here year after year to raise our voices against anti Semitism and indeed against all forms of racism and hatred whether the victims are Jewish Christian or Muslim or from any other group The keynote speech at the ceremony was given by Bartholomew I the 270th and current Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch the spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world In his moving address he stressed the cruel singularity that Auschwitz represents to humanity I have never been in a place where cruelty was the order of the day and brutality was so terrifying that it infiltrated the very nature of this place he said Gas chambers crematoria barbed wires all this transformed the lives of people who ended up here into an unimaginable hell He concluded his speech with a plea for tolerance True peace is not achieved by force of arms but only through love that does not seek its own On this special day of remembrance we strongly empathize that it is

not enough to simply remember the victims of the Shoah Silence in the face of injustice and exploitation silence in the shadows of helpless suffering and silence in response to the ideologies of racism and discrimination exacerbate these problems We must do all we can to ensure the tragedy of the Shoah never happens again And the best way to achieve this is to stand against contemporary evil and inhumanity Never again The ceremony also paid tribute to those Greeks who heroically defied Nazi Germany to protect their Jewish neighbors including Mayor Louk s Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos who saved the entire Jewish community on the Greek island of Zakynthos and the Archbishop of Athens Damaskinos Papandreou who at the time said I have made up my mind to save as many Jewish souls as possible and that There is neither Jew nor Greek emphasizing that all people are the same in the Greek Orthodox religion He is credited with helping in the saving of many Jews Yehuda Poliker son of Holocaust survivors from Thessaloniki and one of Israel s most celebrated musicians performed two of his well known songs infused with the legacy of the Holocaust and his roots in Thessaloniki Dust and Ashes and Thessaloniki As in previous years many world dignitaries attended the event including Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila Greek Parliament President Nicos Voutsis the representative of the Polish government Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski ambassadors of the United States and other countries Israel s ambassador to Poland Anna Azari and clergymen of many denominations including Rabbi Israel Meir Lau former Chief Rabbi of Israel Israel s UN ambassador Danny Danon led a delegation of 30 of his peers from around the world including diplomats from Africa Asia the Pacific Islands Latin America and Eastern Europe and the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman as well as the US ambassadors to Germany and Poland Ambassador Danon noted that the participation of ambassadors in the March of the Living is proof we are on the right track to crack the walls of silence of the international community when it comes to anti Semitism The ceremony concluded with an eloquent declaration from a group of 21 young leaders from around the world who took part in the first ever Emerging Leadership Conference on the Shoah and Combating Anti Semitism and Intolerance at Krakow s Jagiellonian University They drafted a Declaration against Anti Semitism Racism and Intolerance which was read by representatives from the conference on the main stage before Hatikva was sung See page 9 Watching these 21 leaders on the stage read their just crafted declaration and then sing Hatikvah was like watching the passing of the torch of memory and leadership from one generation to the next said Baruch Adler Vice Chairman of the International March of the Living 15

A LASTING IMPACT O ne of the most if not the most overwhelming moments of the trip was our first Shabbat spent in Poland At this point we had visited Auschwitz and Birkenau and completed the international March of the Living in addition to touring Krakow and the cemetery in Warsaw Amid such a whirlwind of events I don t think I d taken any step back to pause and consider all I had encountered over the first few days Yet as soon as we entered the auditorium with the rest of the Canadian delegation started singing Shabbat songs and began dancing while swaying arm in arm I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes While I m sure these tears represented a multitude of feelings what was at the forefront was how unbelievably proud I felt to be Jewish Our culture is so joyous and our community is so warm I felt a part of something bigger than me and I was so grateful to have such a place One particular thought I had was also how grateful I was to know the songs and the tunes to understand the language to read the words and to engage in the customs I recognized the value of my Bialik School education in that moment in a way that I d never appreciated before While I still feel that for me Judaism is about the customs values and culture our family traditions have instilled in me I realized then and there that I m so thankful to have had seven years of a Jewish education and only now see how it also helped shape me in many ways As the week in Poland progressed we visited Lublin Tykochin Treblinka and Majdanek By the end of it all and still now I struggle to fathom 16 Reflections of a participant in last year s March of the Living who was part of the young adult contingent By DEVYN OLIN the tremendous loss of our people and the horrors they endured Being in those places felt surreal and seeing 17 000 stones in Treblinka representing the 900 000 people killed in a place where I stood was indescribable I always heard the number six million but hearing it versus seeing a representation of 17 000 stones which is so overwhelming and yet a mere fraction of the total that perished both solidified the magnitude of the Holocaust and simultaneously made it all the more difficult to comprehend I m so grateful to have had the opportunity to do this trip with survivors and to hear their testimony firsthand moreover at the very scene of the crime For me it was hearing these stories that helped me understand in a more tangible way the magnitude of the Holocaust Hearing Max Eisen Nate Leipciger Sol Nayman and Georgine Nash s stories in addition to reading Max s book I m struck by the survivors tenacity courage resilience and ability to choose life and love and their choice to not only survive but to thrive and to dedicate their lives to education and commemoration with the hope that nothing like this ever happens again All of the survivors were so eloquent worldly articulate and inspiring I aspire to be half of what they are I also noted the survivors strong emphasis on the importance of Israel and standing up against anti Semitism In particular I heard from Max and Nate about the importance of addressing our future as Jews We re so fortunate to live in a democratic country where we re free to practice and celebrate our religion However beyond these borders and even within them anti Semitism is on the rise We hear about it in the news and see it in our own communities Both of my alma maters two communities I presumed to be or perhaps should say took for granted as safe havens were impacted by anti Semitic incidents over the past year Something the survivors and this trip instilled in me was a greater sense of responsibility to act in the face of these attacks If not me then who I now understand that while the Holocaust seems unfathomable it did happen and we cannot be na ve to think the unfathomable is impossible I recognize that even the smallest attacks cannot be met with indifference for hatred is insidious and its effects are far reaching While I still find myself lacking a complete understanding of Israeli politics hearing from the survivors further ingrained in me the significance of Israel for our people in a way I don t think I appreciated as deeply before the March Being in Israel is special and I m saddened to think it s still necessary to send people my age and younger into battle to protect this land for all of us To them I say thank you as I m eternally grateful At the same time witnessing the strength and spirit of Israelis reminds me of what makes this country so engaging Going forward I really want to understand the politics and history in a clearer more comprehensive way I want to be knowledgeable and articulate so I feel more confident and able to stand up and speak out Devyn Olin with Holocaust survivor Georgine Nash at Auschwitz

when others question and attack our country religion culture and people Finally these past few weeks left me thinking about how easy and genuinely wonderful my life is Referring to what I noted above regarding the unfathomable atrocities of the Holocaust I recognize how inexplicably fortunate I am to not experience even a morsel of what our people had to endure Not just in the Holocaust but even thinking of my great grandparents who chose to leave the comforts of their lives and families with nothing but the shirts on their backs working tirelessly to make a living in the desert land of Palestine at the time thinking of my Safta who spent years overjoyed receiving a pair of shoes under her pillow for her birthday who left Israel and moved to a new country Canada at the age of 17 and was able to acclimate to the language and culture through hard work and dedication and thinking of my parents whose love passion sacrifice selflessness and endless effort are things I witness and admire day in and day out None of this is lost on me I recognize I have the life that I do because of all these factors which combine to make my reality a dream While I m not yet done processing everything I encountered on the March I m indebted to have had this experience all the more so to have shared it with survivors Although I missed the chance to go on the March in high school it was important to me that I did ultimately go on the March and alongside survivors I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to deeply experience our people s past whether on the March or in any way accessible to act and promote what I pray is our bright Jewish future Together may we all say to ourselves and one another never again 17

SURVIVOR SPOTLIGHT IRENE KLASS A REMARKABLE STORY As a young girl in Poland Irene Klass defied the odds and cheated death on several occasions at the hands of the Nazis For decades she s lived in South Africa By RENE POZNIAK A t the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre Irene Klass 88 speaks to school groups because she feels it s important young people hear first hand from survivors of the Holocaust For that reason she shares with them the hellish reality she experienced after the outbreak of World War 2 cruelly disrupted her happy childhood at age 8 In Poland in 1940 the Nazis created the Warsaw Ghetto where Irene her mother uncle and grandmother were confined after being forced to leave their home Conditions were dire due to overcrowding lack of food lice typhus and other diseases with no medicine or hospitals People died many from starvation faster than they could be buried resulting in bodies lying in the streets Irene escaped a few times First her multi lingual uncle risked his life to convince a German guard to let the four of them escape through the back of a convoy They returned home and phoned Irene s father who had avoided the ghetto by getting false papers While waiting for him to get them out Irene and her mother worked in a factory sewing buttons on German uniforms but they were eventually caught and sent back to the Umschlagplatz from where trains transported Jews to concentration camps After a second escape and recapture Irene s father secured papers for Irene but not her mother They said goodbye on a staircase in the burning ghetto before Irene was let out by a guard her father bribed She didn t know if she would ever see her mother again I walked out of the burning ghetto to so called freedom 18 on the Christian side Irene recalls People there walked freely and normal life was taking place I remember feeling like a hunted animal and afraid of everything and everybody I was scared somebody would point me out as a Jew and have me killed Irene s father gave her papers and paid a non Jewish woman to look after her without telling her Irene was Jewish Her father visited her every few weeks but eventually stopped coming To this day she doesn t know what happed to him To earn money Irene bought a small suitcase and sold soap on the streets of Warsaw A year later after an uprising on the Christian side Irene and the woman looking after her were captured by the Nazis and sent via cattle truck to the transit camps where they were separated in a selection She was again saved by an aunt who came to the transit camp disguised as a nurse put flour on Irene s face to make her look pale like she had contracted Typhus and convinced the guards to let them leave They travelled to outside Warsaw where Irene s mother was working as a domestic having escaped through the sewers with her father s help and then hiding in an attic One day they heard the Germans were coming so they went into the bushes hid in a hole and lived off berries and potatoes Once liberated they returned to Lodz where they heard about Rabbi Shainfeld who was taking orphans from Poland to England A family signed a guarantee for Irene and she left Poland at age 16 Irene eventually reunited with her mother in Israel There she met and married her husband who was from South Africa to where they later moved and still live today Irene hadn t been back to Poland until 2010 when she accompanied a MOTL group of 11th grade students She said at first she was looking for things that had been left behind but couldn t find any She said she remembers standing on the big square in what was the Warsaw Ghetto and asking herself why God saved her Maybe it was so she could speak to children who needed to learn from a survivor what happened She said her husband was proud he married a Holocaust survivor but she wasn t able to talk about her war time experiences Only when she started to work at the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre did she start speaking She found the MOTL extremely moving and believes it s a valuable tool to teach the lessons of unchecked hatred and where it can lead The trip started a healing process and gave her some closure She said going to Auschwitz was the most emotional day of the trip and encourages all youngsters to make such a powerful journey From the feedback I got from young MOTL participants having Irene with us on the bus was like having a little piece of history with us They treated her with such gentleness and she made the whole experience much more authentic Irene is very involved in the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre where she talks to school groups weekly and serves as an inspiration to us all Rene Pozniak is an education specialist and youth leader at MOTL in South Africa

BRANKO LUSTIG 1932 2019 IN MEMORIAM After surviving Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen he became an Oscar winning film producer and much respected champion of Holocaust education By ELI RUBENSTEIN B ranko Lustig Holocaust survivor and multiple Academy Award winner passed away last November in Zagreb at age 87 Best known as a successful film producer who won Best Picture Oscars for Schindler s List and Gladiator he long promoted democratic values and tolerance Born in the eastern Croatian town of Osijek part of Yugoslavia before WWII he was sent to Auschwitz and later Bergen Belsen during the war Most of his relatives were murdered in the Holocaust After beginning his film career in Croatia he moved to Hollywood in 1988 Some of the other films Lustig worked on as a producer or executive producer include The Peacemaker 1997 Hannibal 2001 and Black Hawk Down 2001 After more than 20 years in Hollywood he began spending more time in the Croatian capital of Zagreb becoming president of the annual Festival of Tolerance whose aim is to create a more tolerant society in part by educating young people Launched in 2005 as the Jewish Film Festival it raises awareness about and maintains collective memory of the Holocaust through films and personal testimonies about Nazi death camps Lustig was the festival s president for 12 years In 2009 the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust honored Lustig for his longtime commitment to Holocaust education and commemoration He made it his life s mission to tell the story of the Holocaust says Yad Vashem Visual Center Director Liat Benhabib Lustig joined the March of the Living in 2011 where he celebrated the Bar Mitzvah he never had because of the Shoah In his speech at Auschwitz he recalled the promise he made as the youngest prisoner in his barrack to tell the world about the fate of those who perished He concluded his remarks with these words The message I want to share today is the message of tolerance It is my Bar Mitzvah wish today and never again is my hope and dream for always His presence made a lasting impact I remember very well the emotional Bar Mitzvah ceremony we held for him in Auschwitz says Phyllis Greenberg Heideman IMOTL President So many of us like Branko himself were brought to tears of pride and joy at the meaning of the moment His legacy will live on forever on the silver screen See MOTL YouTube links https youtu be hQqe3W4fslc and https youtu be AxIx_ g3JeyM from his moving participation in the 2011 March of the Living which includes eloquent remarks from his daughter Sara and a message from film director Steven Spielberg with whom Lustig collaborated on Schindler s List and in recording 50 000 Holocaust survivors testimony for a project for the Shoah Foundation BEDRICH STEINER 1931 2014 Feeling a responsibility to share his harrowing story of surviving the Holocaust he made a lasting impact on the Jewish community in Mexico By ALINA GARBER A lthough it s already nearly six years since Holocaust survivor Bedrich Steiner passed away he s still dearly missed by many in Mexico s Jewish community and beyond Such was the impact he made especially in his later years when Bedrich was highly active in telling the story of what he lived through in Europe during his childhood and adolescence He took seriously what he considered was his responsibility to share his testimony not just with Jewish audiences but with the wider Mexican society To that end he wrote articles gave lectures and took part in Holocaust related events around the country He also participated in the March of the Living many times sometimes with his wife some with his daughter and granddaughter His last March was in 2014 before passing away later that year Born in Prague in 1931 Bedrich was eight years old when the Germans invaded then Czechoslovakia in 1939 Four years later he and his family were sent to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and after a few months they were transferred again this time to Auschwitz After that he has little memory of his mother and sister After their arrival there Bedrich and his family were put in the Familienlager family camp for six months until its liquidation when his family was sent to the gas chambers He was selected with 90 other boys and some men and women to work on the maintenance of the camp Later following a death march Bedrich was liberated by American soldiers and went back to live in Prague In 1968 he immigrated to Mexico with his wife and daughter during the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia The first time Bedrich participated in the March of the Living was in 2008 accompanied by his daughter Alice He became an important part of the group A humble sensitive man he shared his story with the delegation on every trip along with a message He always insisted we must not hate we must learn from mistakes and take responsibility for the future He urged young people to do something positive in their lives to be good make a change and most importantly be happy Alina Garber is the Director of Marcha de la vida Mexico 19

MARCHER SPOTLIGHT FINDING MY CALLING Feeling the need to take part in the MOTL for the third time to honor the memory of those killed in the Holocaust and to help ensure Jewish survival By DAVID RAVANSHENAS W hen I often think about the March of the Living I went on in 2014 as a high school senior it feels like it was yesterday Maybe it s because two weeks in a row don t go by that I m not talking with someone about the trip or having a memory from it cross my mind I ve always been troubled by how difficult it has been for the Jewish people to regenerate to its pre World War 2 population Today 75 years after the war the global Jewish population is still far from 17 million strong To make things worse it seems each new generation of Jewish young adults has increasingly less of a connection to their religion culture and history Jewish continuity could be at stake but as leaders in our community we will find ways to keep people engaged because Judaism has so much to offer to future generations The March of the Living offers a platform for people to engage in a transformative and educational experience to understand the horrors of the past which in turn helps shape our future We all must see and understand the darkest side of our history to appreciate the light that Judaism shines upon our people We are one part of a long story and we must continue to keep the traditions and stories alive In 2017 I decided to attend March of the Living with a delegation of adults from BJE Builders of Jewish Education Los Angeles Although I came back from the life changing experience with many unanswered questions about the Holocaust it was clear I had found my calling I wanted to make this experience accessible to young adults in their 20s and 30s so they could see where they came from before they decided where they would be going for the rest of their lives This journey can bring clarity to some of life s most difficult questions revolving around mate selection how to raise your children and what kind of a home you want to build IN THE SHOAH S SHADOW FODZ leads the way in struggle to preserve material Jewish heritage in Poland including synagogues cemeteries and othe landmarks By PIOTR PUCHTA E stablished in 2002 by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland and the World Jewish Restitution Organization WJRO the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland FODZ protects surviving Jewish heritage sites and monuments in Poland FODZ is active in remote regions far from major cities which are difficult for Jewish communities to reach and provide adequate care of sites and objects in these localities In total FODZ s area of operation covers nearly two thirds of Poland where its tasks include protecting Jewish heritage sites of special historical significance restitution of former Jewish communal property 20 management of the reclaimed properties and cultural and educational activities related to Jewish culture As FODZ s 20th anniversary approaches there s an urgent need to revise the strategy for the preservation of material Jewish heritage in Poland including synagogues cemeteries and other landmarks Current actions involve taking individ ual initiatives without wider coordination Based on input from various parties the future approach should take into account inter alia involvement of many partners both in Poland and from abroad in preserving material Jewish heritage Taking all of the above into consideration FODZ will be pursuing a new strategy working together with a team In 2018 along with Parisa Roshan we led a trip to Poland with a group of 47 young professionals from Sinai Temple to experience the journey of the March We watched as the group bonded and created friendships that will last a lifetime Four of the participants were lucky enough to find their future spouses on our bus and will be getting married later this year In ten days we built a new Jewish community from a bus full of strangers We will be returning to Poland this year with a group of 57 young professionals to honor the memory of those lost and remember that we all must do our part to ensure the survival of the Jewish people of academics experts and practitioners to develop a comprehensive program for the preservation of Poland s Jewish heritage The need for a formal written plan of action is urgent given it s now several decades since the first steps were taken to protect the country s material Jewish heritage and there s still no clearly defined vision to form the basis for comprehensive actions The urgency of the matter stems from the limited resources and the need to define a clear framework for activities of central and local government institutions international partners civil society activists and non governmental organizations If interested in joining us in this initiative contact FODZ s via my email at ceo fodz pl Piotr Puchta is the CEO of the FODZ

REGIONAL FOCUS CANADA FULL STEAM AHEAD Led by a highly dedicated professional team including many former Marchers March of the Living Canada is sending a large delegation to this year s MOTL By DANI FINE W ith more than 800 participants enrolled for 2020 Canada has been working hard gearing up for this year s March of the Living Our region is comprised of five contingents Toronto Montreal Coast to Coast high school students young adults and adults Although Canada is the second largest land mass on the planet we as a MOTL region pride ourselves in providing an intimate experience for all our participants regardless of where they reside Additionally we are blessed to have a robust survivor community allowing us to still ensure that each of our contingents has a full complement of survivors to share their personal narratives and provide their immeasurably important presence for our participants Part of the very fabric of all of our communities federations synagogue and affinity communities MOTL is part and parcel of the Canadian Jewish experience We are limited only by the physical capacity of the planes travelling from Canada to Poland We invest considerably in the education of all involved in the Canadian MOTL Contingents recently held chaperone training shabbatonim in Kingston Ontario for Toronto and Coast to Coast chaperones and at Camp Bnei Brith in Quebec for Montreal chaperones Additionally shabbatonim and educational sessions will take place throughout the winter for all high school contingents along with educational seminars for young adults and adults The March of the Living Canada is led by a highly dedicated professional compliment many of whom were past Marchers We are also endowed with highly gracious committed and dynamic lay leaders in every community across the country It s because of our leaders that we can ensure the proper finances and support necessary to provide this remarkable experience for any Canadian who desires to participate Over the past year we ve embarked upon a significant review of the March consisting of questionnaires and focus groups to better address the needs and wishes of future participants while heeding UK TAKING STOCK OF THE FIRST DECADE As MOTL UK marks its 10th anniversary it has reason to celebrate By SCOTT SAUNDERS I f 10 years ago when I started March of the Living UK one would ve told me that by 2020 we will have taken nearly 2 500 participants to Poland I likely would have responded with laughter Yet that is precisely where we stand today Interestingly the journey began in Hong Kong three years earlier in 2007 when in my role overseeing JCC events I looked at taking a group to Poland for the March Aharale Tamir Deputy World Chairman of the International MOTL came to Hong Kong to meet with me and other leaders Although it was difficult to generate much support we were inspired to succeed and took our first steps into the MOTL family This year we will celebrate our 10th anniversary and as I reflect on this milestone it s clear our success would never have happened without the international board volunteers and partners who put their trust in us Over the past decade we created a program that many now consider the gold the experiences of those who participated in the past A few key elements emerged from our review process including developing funding models to reduce the cost for enhanced participation extra care and support for our participating survivors including a significant number of survivor liaisons and down time opportunities and the heightened need to properly plan for the day when our survivors will no longer be participating For years we ve developed a digital archive of survivor testimonies filmed on location so our participants can get a sense of the first person testimony in the location where the participants are viewing it Other educational pedagogies and technologies are now being explored with critical budgetary considerations March of the Living Canada is focused on MOTL 2020 but also well beyond to ensure that we are responsive to the needs of our participants and to ensure fidelity to the memories of the Shoah and enduring legacies of our survivors Dani Fine is National Director Canada Israel Experience standard for Holocaust education within the Anglo Jewish community We are different than most other international groups as our focus has always been solely on Poland and we target university aged students and young professionals Many of our participants have already been to Poland and for them this is a chance to return and learn with greater depth and maturity Our educators from both the UK and Israel choreograph a narrative taking us through 1 000 years of Jewish history to a period of its darkest chapter followed by the renewal of Jewish life today I m immensely proud of Continued on the next page 21

REGIONAL FOCUS what has been achieved many of our alumni return inspired to grow within their communities and campuses and have simultaneously expanded their involvement in March of the Living UK We ve been involved in educator training taken interfaith leader groups and included students studying in the UK from abroad We ve even included members of India s Jewish community to our fold which has contributed greatly to cross communal understanding Our 10th anniversary coincides with a far more significant anniversary 75 years since the liberation of many camps and the end of World War 2 Over the past 32 years MOTL International has become the leading global program for students in Poland and with partners in other European countries has helped create meaningful events in places such as Budapest and beyond For the UK delegation there is another place which is important to us one whose name also stands out in infamy Bergen Belsen Originally created as a prisoner of war camp the Nazis converted it in 1943 into a concentration camp from which many survivors who have accompanied our MOTL journeys were liberated Many would say that Bergen Belsen was not a death camp but a camp of death On April 15 1945 the British 11th Armoured Division liberated the camp finding widespread death starvation and disease Tragically 15 000 Jewish inmates died after liberation One of the survivors who has been with us on multiple occasions Rene Salt ended up marrying one of those British liberators After the war Bergen Belsen also became the largest Displaced Persons camp in Europe The story of the survivors in post war Europe and the DP camps is one we don t tell enough As part of the 2020 journey the MOTL UK delegation on departing Krakow will travel to Bergen Belsen to hold a one day program of learning concluding with a special ceremony We will be accompa EUROPE ANYTHING BUT NEUTRAL GROUND When the March of the Living organizes events and other initiatives in Europe they hit especially close to home due to the charged history where Jews are concerned By ROBERT SARNER G iven where the Holocaust took place and who perpetrated it it s little surprise Europe is the main focus of the March of the Living and its related activities throughout the year Since last spring MOTL has organized a number of European initiatives that contribute to ongoing projects in different fields and reinforce its connection with various countries on the continent Last May in Krakow Poland just ahead of the main MOTL event officials from the European Union Erasmus SERISE project held meetings with Lithuanian German and Greek teachers and Holocaust educators who were attending the MOTL the next day at Auschwitz The EU s Erasmus program is a funding initiative to support activities in the fields of education training youth and sport With its support 22 MOTL in Europe launched a project called SERISE Sharing European Remembrance with Innovative School Education It consists of programs to assist and support European schools and school authorities to devel op their Holocaust education work with their students It provides a unique opportunity for teachers headmasters and other educational staffers to participate in pan European training courses to develop joint initia nied by survivors alumni and dignitaries It s only fitting that on this auspicious anniversary we commemorate the survivors who have rebuilt their lives and the men and women of the Allied armed forces who fought and died so we could live in today s world Winston Churchill once said in reference to the Battle of Britain Never was so much owed by so many to so few We must pay tribute to those who fought for our freedom and learn the lessons of the Shoah We must learn from those who miraculously survived to live in a world with positivity free of all forms of hatred It has been an honor to build March of the Living UK over the past decade but I feel we re still only at the start of this journey Scott Saunders is the Founder and Chairman of MOTL UK tives to promote cooperation peer learning and exchange of best practices in Holocaust education and in accompanying groups of European high school students to the annual March of the Living The program helped contribute to a strong European presence at the MOTL beyond the usual delegations of Jewish high school students from around the world Large groups of non Jewish students attended including 1 200 from Poland 800 from Austria and for the first time 215 from Germany A 30 student delegation from Romania was led by the country s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila who was then also President of the European Council The first ever Bulgarian delegation was led by Vice Foreign Affairs Minister and national coordinator for the fight against anti Semitism Georg Giorgiev In late August in Budapest Hungary the EU Erasmus SERISE Project Training Seminar took place with 45

Holocaust teachers educators and MOTL educational staffers from nine EU countries to define MOTL s educational guidelines for high school groups from Europe A month later in Vilnius Lithuania MOTL held a twoday conference of European Emerging Leaders from nine European countries A few weeks later in Lithuania the first joint March of the Living took place in Vilnius and Ponary to mark the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 Co organized by the International Commission and the European MOTL it attracted some 1 000 participants including 600 high school students and was addressed by Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis In late January this year the MOTL in partnership with the European Jewish Association hosted a symposium in Krakow as part of a two day program for members of the European Parliament and journalists The symposium which featured Jewish and non Jewish speakers from various EU countries including several government figures focused on contemporary anti Semitism and ways to combat it The next day dele ALUMNI CALLING ALL ALUMNI New plans are now underway to create a global network of former Marchers who want to be engaged in related activities and connect with others like them By JONATHAN ADLER A s we begin 2020 it s already looking to be a big year for March of the Living alumni Based on the response we ve been receiving to our plans to move forward on initiatives involving former Marchers the future for MOTL alumni is bright Building an alumni network is a very powerful thing The knowledge they carry after being part of such an emotional and educational program is intense to say the least These young men and women will become the ambassadors for the March and the voice for those who can no longer speak They will be the fighting force to counter anti Semitism BDS Holocaust deniers and anti Zionist proponents Together we will achieve this by continuing to build and develop strong bonds with our Marchers In 2020 alone we have already started developing a road map of programming for the year in Israel We urge anyone who is studying visiting serving or living in Israel to join us and take part in our activities These will include a 2020 kickoff dinner in Tel Aviv where we will host a think tank on future planning for alumni If you re in Israel come out to hear what participants are seeking from an alumni network so we can build it out with their best interests in mind We are forming a running team for the Jerusalem Marathon and already we have 14 participants with the number continuing to grow There are plans for a meet up in Jerusalem which would include a guest speaker from the Israeli government In addition we re nus having participated in the 2005 March as part of the US Southern Region It wasn t my first exposure to the Holocaust and its atrocities I m the grandson of survivors My grandparents come from Germany and Hungary Of my four grandparents three were heavily affected by the Holocaust while one was fortunate to get out planning an end of the year tour and shabbaton This is just the beginning and just in Israel We want to create a worldwide network where everyone is connected with an opportunity for likeminded individuals to connect discuss and reunite We have plans for a larger alumni leadership summit for all alumni from around the world I too am a MOTL alum of Germany right before the war The other three weren t as lucky One went through Auschwitz Birkenau where she was tattooed and lost some fingers one was sent away as a young boy on the Kindertransport and my other grandfather survived several labor camps in Europe and Siberia My mother Eve Adler was the Atlanta MOTL coordinator for many years She took part gates traveled by bus to Auschwitz Birkenau to tour the notorious death camp on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of its liberation Attendees visited the Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum layed wreaths at Execution Wall and took part in religious services where one of the speakers was Holocaust survivor and former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau in the March trip seven times When the program started to attract far fewer people locally as no one was running it in Atlanta she stepped up to ensure the term Never Forget stays alive in our region Now I m following in her footsteps with the ultimate goal of making sure Never Forget isn t forgotten after our attendees complete their two week journey I joined the International March of the Living last November Born and raised in Atlanta Georgia I currently live in Israel in a small community Even Shmuel in the south of the country I m married to Hila with three beautiful children Gilad Maya and Maoz To fully achieve our alumni project we will need a wider network and expanded database We might be from 40 countries and speak 40 languages but the one language we all share in common is the language of the March of the Living Help us realize our goal of a united alumni network where we can share events news ceremonies and updates so all can partake We look forward to sharing our updates and progress in Israel and would love to hear your perspective as well as collaborate on future programming We would love to hear from you Anyone who would like to assist make recommendations or just say hello can reach me at alumni motlmail org 23

GALLERY TELLING THE STORY AROUND THE WORLD Snapshots of interesting moments in the life of Holocaust education and rememberance near and far Roots of romance Two couples from the Sinai Temple Los Angeles Young Professional Delegation to the 2019 March of the Living were engaged last November Amanda Saviss and Michael Molayem forged a connection that sparked a friendship on their journey in Poland that ultimately led to the two to start dating upon their return to LA and as they say in the classics the rest is history Similarly Parisa Roshan and Emanuel Abrishami reconnected months after their MOTL participation MOTL President honored On Dec 27 2019 International March of the Living President Phyllis Greenberg Heideman received the Golden Golda Global Leadership in Zionism Award from the World Zionist Organization s Dept for the Promotion of Aliyah The honor was in recognition of her achievements as a Jewish female leader and her commitment to the core values of Zionism and Aliyah Photo Katka Reszke UN diplomats on MOTL mission Israeli President Reuven Rivlin welcomed a delegation of UN ambassadors from around the world who arrived in Israel after traveling to Poland on the third mission organized by International March of the Living and the American Zionist Movement In mid December he hosted the delegation at a special ceremony at the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem where he called on the UN Secretary General to appoint a special envoy to combat anti Semitism Condolences March of the Living mourns the recent passing of Zygmund Krinski one of the Polish Righteous Among The Nations He and his family saved Sidney Zoltak s life during the Shoah Sidney who lives in Canada has accompanied several MOTL trips during which students had the moving experience of seeing first hand the abiding love between the Zoltak and Krinski families See Reunions the MOTL film about Zygmund and Sidney http molarchiveproject com sidney zoltak reunions For the love of Israel An enthusiastic group of MOTL alumni and friends from around the world celebrated Israel s 71st birthday by marching with MOTL s eye catching float in the 55th annual Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City on June 2 2019 Some 40 000 participants took part in the event which marched down the city s fabled Fifth Avenue from 57th to 74th Streets This year s theme was Rak b Yisrael only in Israel 24 Deeply touched by MOTL As a long time good friend and supporter of Israel and the Jewish people actress Suzanne Somers participated in the 2019 March of the Living Both her time in Poland and Israel clearly made a strong impact on her as reflected by the words and photographs she included in her blogpost about the experience See more https www suzannesomers com blogs update march for the living