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Telling Jewish stories during Yom HaShoah lost in the Holocaust. “For us, it is simply not humanly possible to grasp what Shirley Gottesman, 16, was 6 million murders mean,” Verforced to collect the shoes scat- non told the solemn gathering. tered across the crematorium “The number is just way too floor in the Auschwitz concen- large — but we can try. “Although these lives were tration camp. She was alone — she didn’t know where her taken, and many others were mother was. She hadn’t seen cruelly tormented,” he added, her injured grandmother since “Jewish existence has not been eliminated.” they got of f the Shaaray Shalom train. And as she was filled with worgathered the shoes shippers from Jewof the men, women ish congregations and children who across Nassau had been killed in county, elected offithe ovens, she reccials, and those of ognized one. It was other faiths who her mother’s. NANCY SPIElBERG wanted to mark the Those gathered Holocaust. In all, in Cong re g ation Filmmaker between those lisShaaray Shalom, in tening in person West Hempstead, last Sunday evening hung on and those who watched on G o t t e s m a n ’s e ve r y wo r d . Zoom, the synagogue leaderThough she died last August at ship estimated that nearly 700 age 96, her testimony lives on people observed the service. This Yom HaShoah was difin video. The event marked Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust ferent from years past, coming Remembrance Day. Rabbi Art just seven months after the Vernon lit eight candles — one Hamas attack. “While I do not believe that to remember the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against anything can nor should ever Israel, one to remember the be compared to the Holocaust, non-Jewish lives lost in World we are seeing some of the worst War II, and six more, each sig- antisemitic uprising that most nifying 1 million Jewish lives Continued on page 5
By NIColE FoRMISANo
nformisano@liherald.com
Maureen Lennon/Herald
All hands on deck for Halls Pond cleaning Joseph McCroary, of Boy Scout Troop 372, helped during the West Hempstead Community Support Association’s Halls Pond Cleanup. More photos, Page 10.
Long Island drinking water concerns ignite a call to action By RACHEl BAMGBoSE Herald intern
A packed house attended a meeting at the Levittown Public Library on April 17 with the League of Women Voters of East Nassau to learn about the pressing issues of water quality and consumption on Long Island, igniting a call to action among concerned community members. The LWV invited Sarah Meyland to lead a presentation on the topic of water contamination and conservation. For more than 20 years, Meyland was a professor of sustainability at New York University, with a background in water quality. She also holds a degree in environmental
law from St. John’s University and a master’s in water resource management from Texas A&M. According to Meyland, toxic chemicals in drinking water are the key issue regarding water quality in Nassau County. She explained that chemicals, such as nitrates, herbicides, pesticides and pathogens, are frequently found in the water supply. On Long Island, groundwater is the sole source of drinking water. Separated by sand and dirt, groundwater is stored in geological formations called aquifers, which could store, transmit and yield usable quantities of water. As a result, chemicals that are used for farming often end up Continued on page 9
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t’s incredible how vast the Jewish story is.