Happy Birthday Israel
Volume XXIV, Issue VIII | www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
5 Iyar 5778 | April 20, 2018
Israel at 70: Holocaust survivor recalls fighting in Israel’s War of Independence BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) – Mordechai Schachter didn’t know he would soon be a soldier when he traveled from his native Romania to prestate Israel in 1948. He was a 17-yearold with a passion for Zionism, leaving behind a country that was becoming increasingly anti-Semitic a few short years after at least 270,000 Romanian Jews died during the Holocaust. At the end of 1947, Schachter had boarded one of two boats of 7,500 Jews each that were to take them to the promised land, despite a British ban on Jewish emigration there. Many of the passengers were lone children whose parents sent them on the boats to escape Romania. Schachter’s parents had meant to come, but his father fell ill before the trip, so they stayed behind. The journey went as planned until the boats hit the Dardanelles, a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey. There they were met by seven British ships. Passengers decided not to fight back since a significant portion of them were children and elderly; their boats were rerouted
Mordechai Schachter to Cyprus. Three months later, the British agreed to allow the children, including Schachter, to go on to Palestine. Schachter remembers arriving in Ranaana, and eating hamentaschen and oranges on his first week there. In Ranaana he also met one of his three brothers, who had arrived in prestate Israel four months earlier. Five weeks later he was ordered to join the army, where he was taught how to shoot a gun and given an Italian rifle from World ISRAEL AT 70 | 7
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March of the Living
ocal teens participating in the March of the Living are photographed on the day of the 3K walk from Auschwitz to Berkenau. The educational experience, from April 8-22, included a week in Poland and a week in Israel. Teens from past years have described the trip as “transformative” and “life-changing” as they participate with
PHOTO | MICHELLE CICHITELLI
14,000 other teens from around the globe. This year’s participants are (left to right) back row: Etai Bally, Elliott Entin, Marin Warshay, Jacob Hammarstrom, Jordan Kimia, Gabe Mernoff and Michelle Cichitelli (chaperone). Bottom row: Jessica Nassau, Natalie Westrick, Aurora Rees, and Sadie Gaffin.
Yom ha-Shoah commemoration remembers the past, looks toward the future BY LEV POPLOW The main sanctuary in Providence’s Temple Emanu-El was full on April 11 – full of people and full of the sounds of old friends and acquaintances greeting each other. Then a hush fell over the crowd as Judie Tennenbaum played a haunting melody on her harp, signifying the beginning of our community’s annual Yom ha-Shoah commemoration. All eyes turned to the entrance as Holocaust survivors and their families entered to the harp’s sweet melody. The scene was somber and deeply moving as the procession made its way to the front of the sanctuary, where survivors and family members lit memorial candles for those they lost. Rabbi Wayne Franklin’s opening remarks succinctly touched upon the meaning of Yom ha-
Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. His words evoked the past, spoke to the present, and looked hopefully to the future. “As human beings, we are not as different from each other as Isaiah’s wolf and lamb,” Franklin said. “We can learn to live in harmony. We can learn to live in peace with one another if we open our hearts wider to each other.” Referring to the documentary “Paper Clips,” the rabbi added, “What started in Whitwell, Tennessee, grew into a monumental achievement of the human spirit …. “Isaiah said a little child will lead the way to overcoming differences. The students in Whitwell have shown the power of young voices to lead us to peace. “To commemorate Yom haShoah tonight we stand resolute to say, and mean, never again.” As if to underscore the rab-
PHOTOS | LEV POPLOW
Joe Fab speaks to the crowd.
bi’s words, pianist and composer Judith Lynn Stillman performed, with the HaZamir Choir and Cantor Brian Mayer, a piece that she composed, with lyrics from a Yiddish poem, “Sakhaki,” that offer hope and inspiration in the depths of de-
spair: “You may laugh at my dreams, but I’ll continue to dream …. Laugh, for I believe in man, for I still believe in you.” Radio host and Yom HaShoah Committee member Patricia Raskin then introduced the keynote speaker, Joe Fab, the producer and co-director of “Paper Clips.” “The film ‘Paper Clips,’ which focuses on understanding and tolerance, is very relevant in today’s climate of distrust and division,” Raskin noted. The film, released in 2004, follows the remarkable journey of middle school students in tiny Whitwell, Tennessee. In a town with no Jews and only a handful of African-Americans, the students chose the Holocaust as the vehicle to learn about tolerance. They created the Paper Clips Project, hoping to collect 6 million paper clips to represent
the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. They chose paper clips because, in their research, they had learned that in Norway, people attached paper clips to their lapels as a sign of resistance to the Nazis. And paper clips were something the students could see and count to help understand the huge number of people who lost their lives. Paper clips poured into Whitwell from all over the world; they ended up collecting over 27 million. They went on to build a permanent memorial that people still visit. Fab said that while making the film, he was “struck by the students’ genuine curiosity. They wanted to learn. They wanted to understand. When they met survivors, they responded with compassion.” YOM HA-SHOAH | 22