_____________ ROCKVILLE CENTRE ____________
HERALD
OUR COMMUNIT IMPORTANT - SCAN Y IS TO READ WHY COM BELOW ING BA WAS RIGHT FOR ME! CK
Hundreds attend Rudolph Run
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Vol. 34 No. 50
DECEMBER 7 - 13, 2023
4.9
ALEX ANDERSON
516.544.2728
530 Merrick Rd., Rockville
Across from Pantry Diner
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‘Evens’ win big at alumni lax game
H E R A LD
Holocaust survivor speaks at South Side and forced to sleep in a cemetery. After a few days, they moved into an attic with some other Rosalie Lebovic Simon, a families. “Living conditions there were Holocaust survivor from what was then-Czechoslovakia and most difficult — especially liswho now lives in Floral Park, tening to the cries of hungry visited South Side High School children,” Simon recounted. last week to talk with students “They did not provide any food about her experiences and the for us. We only had the little bit reported increase in antisemi- of food we brought from home, but at least we had a tism on Long Island. roof over our Simon was the heads.” youngest of six chilShe recalled dren. When she was walking down the 11, she was expelled street one day when from school and a man suddenly required to wear a stopped her, proyellow star, to identiduced a pair of scisfy her Jewish heri- RosAlIE sors and cut her tage. In April 1944, lEBoVIC sIMoN hair. “I cried and during Passover, her Holocaust survivor screamed,” Simon family was told to and author said, “but he would pack up their not stop until all my belongings and ordered to leave their home in hair was cut off.” Eight weeks later, her family Teresva, located in present-day was transported in a cattle car to Ukraine. “The next day, we each packed the Nazi concentration camp our own bags of clothes and fam- Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, she ily pictures,” Simon told an audi- and her mother were separated ence of South Side seniors. “We from her father, her four sisters left our house in tears, leaving and her brother. Simon was considered too behind all of our life-saving possessions and wondering if we young for labor, and her mother, are ever coming back to our who was 45 at the time, was considered too old, so they were put home again.” Her family was deported to an into a line for the gas chamber. overcrowded ghetto in Hungary, Continued on page 11
By DANIEl oFFNER
doffner@liherald.com
Tim Baker/Herald
Friends of Mercy have a ball Joseph Lanzetta, left, was presented with the Sister Mary Nadine Casey CIJ Award for his efforts to honor the values of Mercy Hospital and its founders. Joining him are John J. Joyce of Rockville Centre, who received the Theodore Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Public Service, and Francis A. Keating, III, of Rockville Centre, who received the Bishop John R. McGann Lifetime Achievement Award, at the 87th annual Mercy Ball on Saturday night.
Diocese claims $200M is its ‘best and final’ settlement offer By DANIEl oFFNER doffner@liherald.com
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre has made what it says is its “best and final proposal” toward a settlement with the more the 600 people who accused the church of child sexual abuse. In question is the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the diocese filed three years ago, with church officials saying they are willing to amend its reorganization plan to compensate those victims through a $200 million fund the church would set up. This particular offer isn’t new. In fact, it was
made last February, entitling victims to a minimum cash payment of $100,000 for some lawsuits, while others would receive an immediate cash payment of $50,000. The proposed payout is the largest settlement offer made in any diocesan case to date, according to church spokesman, Sean Dolan — both on a total payout and per-claimant basis. “Further litigation will delay compensation for all survivors,” Dolan said, in a release. It also “may result in unfair compensation for many survivors, and could ultimately leave some survivors with no compensation at all. Instead of continuing to fund lawyers’ fees, this money is Continued on page 19
T
o have hate is such a terrible thing.