PEPPER PIKE, Ohio – Hundreds of people💎 gathered at the B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike Sunday evening to reflect on the past with the hope of a better future.
Northeast Ohio’s Jewish community commemorated the annual Yom Hasho🐟ah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year’s theme was L’dor V’dor, or generation to generation. The event occurred against the backdrop of the Israel and Hamas war, which began seven months ago, as well as amid heated protests at universities across the country against what demonstrators have called a Palestinian genocide.
Robert Zelwin, president of the Kol Israel Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to educate the community💖 about The Holocaust, said his orꦑganization’s mission was more important than ever.
“If you are a descendant of a Holocaust survivor, you are the 🎶descendant of a hero in your family that defied the odds with only the clothes on their backs,” he said.
“We have been a resilient people through our history and we will continu♛e to be stand up to the hate. Don’t be afraid to let people know you are proud to be Jewish.”
Attendees were able to go before the congregation to tell stories about family members’ story of survꦰival during The Holocaust, as well as their immigration to Cleveland. Among the stories ﷽was one about a woman whose mother was able to pay a boy to smuggle them into a ghetto in a neighboring city after her husband had been taken away.
Child survivor Erika Gold, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, told her story with three generations of her family. Sh🐟e descri🧸bed being forced to work in a soldier uniform factory where she, her mother and grandmother also slept. This ensured their safety for a while.
“One day the Nazis ordered all remaining children of the factory to leave,” Gold said. “My mom and I were forced in aဣ truck. We t꧂raveled for hours. My mom knew that this was a terrible situation. We arrived at the open marketplace.”
When they arrived, Gold and her family were able to hop off of the truck, get rid of their jackets marked with the Star of David and blend in with the other shoppers. They then found their former hou🌟sekeeper, with whom they would live in hiding for several years.
Family photos also were shown and following remarks, they lit candles on a menorah in honor of their faꦚmily members. A seventh candle was lit to commemorate the Oct. 7 attack launched by Hamas on Israeli citizens.
“In this room, we understand the importance of giving and receiving testimony, the importance of💎 Holocaust education and the importance of keeping stories alive long after a survivor has passed,” said Erika R♕udin-Luria, president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
Rudin-Luria, who said she had been to Israel several times since the start of the war, was critical of the national backlash and protests against Israel on social media and college campuses, including here at Case Western Reserve꧟ University.
“Today, we stand together also sending a message to our ✃universities and schools that are intended to be the beacons of learning and democracy in the United States, to say that what is happening on our campuses today is anti-Semitic, racist, illiberal, undemocratic and un-American. We say to Jewish students and faculty, we stand with you,” Rudin Luria continued.
The ceremony closed with the announcing of the winners of 🦄a creative arts contest, which were centeꦦred around the theme of generations.
Tammy Sparks, a teacher from Brunswick who came to the event to support a student who submitted their artwork, said it was important to hear the stories of surv꧂ivors.
“We need t꧟o learn from it so that we can become better people today and treat each other with more respect and love than we have in the past,” Sparks said. “Unfortunately, we’re seeing from the acts of the last year that that doesn’t always happen. So it proves how much we nee🦄d to share about what has happened so we can try to avoid these things in the future.”
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