Yom Hashoa @ C.A.S.H.
By Helen Greenblatt
At Chabad Academy of Science and Humanities, Holocaust Memorial Week was commemorated with stirring educational events.
A wide assortment of children’s holocaust literature was on display all week for all to browse. In individual classrooms, teachers introduced this most difficult and sensitive topic with some very fine books of this genre. Teachers read aloud David Adler’s The Number on My Grandfather’s Arm and The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra Deedy to the lower elementary students. Third and fourth graders were spellbound by Patricia Polaco’s The Butterfly and Hilda and Eli by David Adler.
The fourth grade completed their Literature Circle of Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars and wrote a play based on key scenes. They performed their original play for the school and together with the third grade sang the poignant song “Whispering Wind”. The upper elementary and middle school students watched the award-winning film documentary “Paper Clips”.
The highlight of the week’s activities was most certainly the talk given to the upper grades by Mr. Zelig Sander, arranged by our esteemed Principal, Rabbi Noteh Glogauer. Mr. Sander is a holocaust survivor living right in our midst. He is an important member of the Port Washington Chabad community, and a regular morning minyan attendee. Inspired by this primary source, the students were able to see this time in history as not very far off, and they were able to begin the difficult road to understanding what happened to our people only 70 years ago.
Mr. Sander spoke to our hearts in a very straightforward way of his personal experiences and losses. He led us back on the journey from his comfortable home, to the ghetto where he was still with his family, and then to the notorious Birchenau concentration camp, often referred to as Auschwitz, where he was separated from his family, never to see them again. As the German soldiers were retreating at the end of the war during a particularly harsh winter, they took the Jewish prisoners with them on the infamous “Death March”. With the war over, the young Zelig finds himself in a D.P. (displaced persons) Camp. In an incredible affirmation of life, he marries and brings his bride to America, establishing a Jewish home.
The address was peppered with examples of G‑d’s hand in helping the young Zelig survive through precarious circumstances and the “luck” that followed him. Particularly fascinating was the story of how he was arrested for trading in leather (at a time when Jews were prohibited from doing any business) and how being in jail saved his life because he missed a “round-up” of the young Jewish men in his town.
Our students were riveted. Mr. Sander kept their rapt attention throughout and when he invited questions, it was as if a strong faucet was opened. The questions poured out and kept coming. Students were particularly interested in the small details of everyday life. When Mr. Sander had to leave, we continued the dialogue in the classrooms, where it went on for days.
We are so proud of our students’ response to Mr. Sander’s talk and all the other events of that week. Their response was respectful, mature and sensitive.