Last Wednesday evening, the Teaneck Holocaust Comemoration Committee presented a virtual Holocaust presentation in honor of the 83rd Anniversary of the Shoah.
The committee, co-chaired by Felicia Grossman and Chani Jaskoll, began the program with opening remarks by Teaneck Mayor James Dunleavy.
He said that those who perished in the Holocaust were victims of hate and prejudice. He spoke about the Ukranian war and stressed that it is more important than ever for “everyone from every walk of life to remember the Holocaust. Today’s events remind us that the Holocaust is something we have to continue to learn from and to use as the most graphic example of how persons who are intolerant of others can act, demonize and even kill others because of their religion, color or ethnicity.”
Calling Teanck a strong, cohesive community because of its diversity and not in spite of it, he ended his remarks by saying, “On this day I pray that everyone of all faiths renew a commitment to the remembrance of the Holocaust. We can all learn from its lessons and thus be sure that we do everything possible that events such as this will never happen again….I join your voices as we say, we will never forget.”
Bruce Prince, co-president of the Teaneck Jewish Community Council, spoke about the Council’s plans to create a permanent Holocaust memorial on the Teaneck Municipal Green that will attract visitors from all walks of life to come and pay tribute to the victims of the Shoah. “It will also teach the important lessons of what can happen when antisemitism and racism are allowed to go unchecked. The rise of antisemitism in the world today is a sobering reminder of why we need a memorial now more than ever before. Tonight we stand together as one people and stand in solidarity with people throughout the world who are victims of atrocities and oppression.”
The program included a special presentation by Judy Batalion, best-selling author of “The Light of Day: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghetto.” Granddaughter of Holocaust survivors from Poland, she chronicled the heroic resistance of what she called “Jewish Female Bravado” of women whose stories have never been heard.
The inspiration for the book came to her while she was exploring her Jewish identity and contemplating the “emotional legacy of the Holocaust and the way trauma trickles through generations.”
Describing herself as anxious person, she wondered if her Holocaust heritage shaped how she perceived and reacted to everyday threats. Research led her to a Yiddish book titled “Women in the Ghettos,” where she discovered a veritable treasure trove of stories of other young Jewish women who defied the Nazis, mainly from Polish ghettos.
These “Ghetto Girls,” as she came to call them, would pay off Gestapo guards, hide revolvers in teddy bears, help build elaborate underground bunkers and carry out intelligence missions, among other daring and courageous acts.
For decades these stories were hidden, their formidable tales buried for numerous reasons that she outlines in her book. Yet they risked their lives time and time again in their fight for justice, liberty and dignity.
Through these women Judy learned that, “although trauma is passed through generations, so too is courage, daring passion and compassion.”
Nafshenu vocalist Jonathan Rimberg performed Hannah Senesh’s “Eli Eli” on the occasion of what would have been her 100th birthday, followed by a soulful rendition of “Ani Ma’Amin.”
Felicia Grossman introduced this year’s Legacy Family, Jacob and Sharona Schulder, along with their children Noa Leba, Saadya and Hannah. Residents of Teaneck, both parents are descendants of Holocaust survivors.
Legacy families are committed to retelling their family’s stories, preserving their memories and ensuring that the Holocaust, its survivors and those who perished are never forgotten and that a Holocaust never happens again.
Jacob Schulder spoke about his maternal grandparents Rae and Joseph Kushner, both of whom came from Belarus and met in a partisan group in the forests of Belarus. They walked from Czechoslovakia to Austria and then Hungary, where they married in a shul in Budapest. The wedding service included them and 19 other young couples. They immigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Elizabeth, where they had four children. Eventually they became influential members of the Jewish community, placing particular emphasis on Jewish education.
Both sets of Sharona Schulder’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Her paternal grandparents married in September 1939, soon after the Nazi invasion of Poland. They were sent to the same labor camps, but her grandfather, Moshe, decided to escape after learning that Nazis were shooting upon Jews not far from them. He waited until nightfall, broke into the women’s quarter to collect his wife, Raize, and they ran into the forest, where they lived for three years. By the time Poland was liberated in 1945, they had a son, Sharona’s father. They made it to Sweden in 1947 and lived there for four years before immigrating to the United States, eventually settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Sharona’s maternal grandparents were forced into the ghetto shortly after the Nazi invasion in 1939. In 1943, their two children were sent to death camps. Her grandfather was sent to Auschwitz, where he was eventually liberated in 1945, while her grandmother was sent to Bergen-Belsen and liberated only after the infamous death march. They reunited in Munich and immigrated to the US in 1949, one month after Sharona’s mother was born, settling in Newark.
The program concluded with the recitation of Tehilim and Kel Maleh Rachamim led by Rabbi Emeritus Yosef Adler of Congregation Rinat Yisrael.
