At the State of New Jersey Holocaust Observance, South Orange/Maplewood’s 31st Annual Interfaith Holocaust Service, are, from left, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Peter Abelow, chief of staff to Gov. Jon S. Corzine; Philip Kirschner, chair of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education; U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, and Ambassador Asaf Shariv, representing the Consul General of Israel.
May 08, 2008
The genocide in Darfur was a repeated theme when 600 people gathered May 1 for the 31st annual Holocaust Memorial Service of South Orange/Maplewood.
Designated as the state’s official Holocaust observance, the event included a torchlight march from nearby Grove Park to the sanctuary at Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange. United Jewish Communities of MetroWest was a cosponsor of the event and the Holocaust Council was part of the planning committee.
United States Senators from New Jersey Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez attended, as did Peter Abelow, chief of staff to Governor Jon Corzine.
“Evil still exists today,” Abelow said, referring to Darfur. “If it were not for events like this, and the challenges it imposes on us, and the things we do as a result, things would definitely be much worse in Darfur today. There is more, definitely, to be done.”
At the service, held May 1, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez greets Cantor Erica J. Lippitz of Oheb Shalom Congregation. Photos by Johanna Ginsberg
The message was repeated by Lautenberg and Menendez, as well as Asaf Shariv, the Consul General of Israel, who pointed out that Israel has taken in 500 refugees from Darfur.
The sanctuary grew hushed as midway through the evening Holocaust survivors were called up, one by one, to light a candelabra holding 11 candles representing the 11 million people killed during the Holocaust, as a narrator described each one’s story.
There was Imre Boros, who survived Bergen-Belsen after hiding in a safehouse established by Raoul Wallenberg; Gina Lanceter, who jumped through a train window on the way to Majdanek at her parents’ urging; and Gerda Bikales, who hid as she made her way, alone, through Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland.
Other survivors included Norbert Bikales, Hedy Brasch, Helen Paktor, Sam Rusinek, Regina Freeman, Celina Gainer, Jean Gluck, Rachel Lily Goldstein, and Jack Goldstein.
Danuta Kozlowski lit a candle to honor the memory of her godmother, Wladyslawa Choms, a righteous gentile known as “the Angel of Lvov.”
Ursula Korn Selig, who survived the Holocaust as a child after being hidden by a priest in Italy, gave the keynote address.
The last to light a candle, Richard Tisch, helped liberate Dachau as a member of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division.
Dr. Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, presented the Hela Young Award to Detective David D’Amico, an Asbury Park police officer who has worked to reduce prejudice and combat bias crimes. The award is named for an entertainer and Holocaust educator who died in 2002.
A children’s choir, made up of children from Oheb Shalom, Congregation Beth El in South Orange, and Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood, sang,followed by an adult choir joined by the Kol Dodi Chorale of MetroWest New Jersey, directed by Cantor Erica J. Lippitz of Oheb Shalom, with soloist Cantor Perry Fine of Beth El.
At the ceremony, Dr. Paul Winkler, left, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, presented the Hela Young Award to Detective David D’Amico.
Ursula Korn Selig offered a poignant keynote address, describing how she survived the Holocaust as a little girl, hidden by a priest, Father Beniamino Schivo, rector of a convent in Citti di Castello, Italy, after fleeing Germany with her family. He protected them not only from the Germans, but even from a fascist nun, who discovered Selig and her family and would likely have denounced them had Schivo not threatened to kick her out of the convent.
She concluded, “More of us would be here today if there would have been more like Father Schivo. I am only here because of him.”
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