Shabbat Shalom! TKTKTK.

June 18, 2021

Greetings!

Federation is proud to support Voices of Hope through contributions to our Annual Campaign. This vital organization was established by descendants of Holocaust survivors from across Connecticut to promote a culture of courage and to stand up against hatred through Holocaust and genocide education and remembrance. It has been just over 76 years since the last concentration camp was liberated – and one of Voices of Hope’s most important, if often unnoticed, tasks is to celebrate the lives, resilience, and many contributions of Holocaust survivors who are still with us today.

Below, Kimberly Ballaro – Director of the Holocaust Education Resource and Outreach (HERO) Center, a joint initiative of Voices of Hope and the University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies – provides a glimpse into our community’s first ever Holocaust Survivor Day, which will take place next week.

Shabbat shalom!

David Waren

President & CEO

L'Chaim! Inaugural Holocaust Survivor Day Celebrates Life and Family

Voices of Hope and the Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford are excited to hold the first annual Holocaust Survivor Day on June 24 in conjunction with the Café Europa program for local Holocaust survivors. This new commemoration celebrates the lives and accomplishments of survivors the world over; it was initiated by the JCC in Kraków, Poland, and a committee of international scholars, educators, survivors, and descendants to honor the birthday of Auschwitz survivor Marian Turski.

As Executive Director Jonathan Ornstein of JCC Kraków and Director Michael Berenbaum of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University noted, "Holocaust survivors deserve a day of joy, a day of celebration. Not a day to share with condemnation of the Nazis, but a day to celebrate their lives they built in response to the Holocaust. Survivors represent the best in all of us, the best of the human spirit.”

It has been well over a year since Café Europa participants have been able to meet in person, and we are especially delighted to help provide this special afternoon for them and their families. Festivities will include an outdoor picnic, a Klezmer band, and selected speakers — and we hope they will feel honored not only as Holocaust survivors but also as mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, siblings, grandparents and great-grandparents, friends and cherished community members.

In typical years, the commemoration will be held on June 26 – Turski’s birthday – but this year it takes place on June 24 so as not to conflict with Shabbat. This first program is also limited to survivors and their families due to the pandemic; in future years, we hope to open it to the entire community.

Why celebrate our survivors? Adele Jacobs, Voices of Hope’s Vice President and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, said it best: “The survivors of the Shoah are a national treasure. Their courage, appreciation for life and family, and triumph in the face of the worst adversity of the modern era shall never be forgotten. We have been blessed by their presence.”

Click the image below to see Café Europa members celebrating life at a pre-COVID gathering.