Nitzan plays with survivors • Elder Shema documented testimony • Shoshi receives energy from survivor support • Youth for whom the Holocaust is more than a school lesson • Special project for International Holocaust Day
International Holocaust Day: Special Project // Photo: Michelle Dot Com, Jonathan Shaul, Getty Images
Coffee and conversation with survivors: Ofri Kind (14.5) at "Your People" Club
"I discovered something special and interesting: Although my grandparents are Holocaust survivors, these encounters for me began as an unconventional thing," says Ofri Kind (14.5), whose team adopts the "Your" club of Holocaust survivors in the streets.
Kind, a ninth-grader in Harvest Secondary School in the city, says that as part of the adoption, students come and prepare breakfast with the Holocaust survivors and go out for a coffee break in the evening. The students come with refreshments: vegetables, fruits and cheeses, and the parents bake cakes.
"Every few weeks we have a 'refreshment meeting' and everyone strokes themselves," says Ofri, "and when we come to the club, we bring cookies, make tea and coffee together and sit down to talk. There are also times we make breakfast with bread, vegetables, spreads. And sweet things. But it's not about the food, it's more about the personal attitude and starting the morning off well. "
"And when we come to the club, we bring cookies, make tea and coffee together and sit down to talk" // Photo: Jonathan Shaul
According to Ofri, a meeting with one of the survivors affected him: "She said it was very gratifying that teenagers do not forget and come to hear the stories. It really excited her that we came and it makes me feel very good."
The project has been in existence for a decade, and within which the adoptive layer accompanies the association throughout the three years of the division. Layer students come to celebrate the holidays during the year with the members of the association, and also commemorate memorial events, including the general dedication day, at an exciting ceremony in which members of the association are integrated with the students. Six candles are lit at the ceremony, and one member of the association says Kaddish.
As the engagement project grew into companies: Miriam (17), Paine (18) and Dora (86)
Dora Susa may be living on her own, but not alone: For the third year in a row, Holocaust survivors are celebrating her birthdays with two students from the ORT school in Kiryat Gat, and the three meet far beyond that.
Miriam Suleimanov (17) and Paine Yuzpovsky (18) accompany Dora (86) even on difficult days of study and all are adjacent to the protected spaces. "We go to her at least once a week and celebrate with her not only birthdays, but also the holidays," says Miriam, "The connection was already made in the 10th grade, as part of a social engagement project, but because we were a very special connection - we continued to accompany it of our own free will, Regardless of the social engagement project, on her last birthday in November, there were two days of no schooling because rockets were fired on the South, so we decided to go home and make her happy with balloons and gifts. She was very happy, she kept saying she wanted to adopt us as her granddaughters ".
Right to left: Dora, Miriam and Faina
It's not just Dora coming out of volunteering. "It makes me heartbroken to know that I can rejoice in a Holocaust survivor who has had such a difficult experience and is dealing with to this day," shares Miriam, "The fact that I have a connection with someone who went through the Holocaust and can tell about it, it adds value, the emotion "She's moving on to us and we're very attached to her. We're sharing her with what's going on in our lives."
The two are active in the Steinberg "Connected" project, a collaboration of the ORT Israel Network with the Holocaust Victims Welfare Fund. Each year, the students undergo training and discourse circles, and receive information and ways to deal with the survivors. "Today, ORT's 28 schools participate in the program. Nationally deployed, and about 840 volunteers in the 9th and 10th grades along with about 500 Holocaust survivors, "says Zvika Peleg, CEO of the ORT Israel Network," some have been in contact for several consecutive years throughout the brigade and high school, and the connection they form So tight that the survivors consider them grandchildren, and vice versa, even at the daily level of concern. "
"The Survivors' Smile is Worth It All": Shoshi (12), Neve Michael Youth Village
The 12-year-old Shoshi (pseudonym) is defined as an at-risk girl, but in the Neve Michael youth village of the Faith Movement network, located in Pardes Hanna, where she lives and studies, she is careful to call students such as "prospective youth." Despite the difficulties, she participates in a special project called "Holocaust Victors", during which she visits Holocaust survivors once a week together with her mentor Zvia Jerphy.
This is a project that has been around for 8 years. Every week, about 20 trainees come out with guides to visit survivors' homes in Pardes Hanna. The campers visit 7 families, couples and widows, as well as two other survivors in a nursing home. During the visit, the children talk, sing, dance and play with the survivors. During the winter, the survivors are also honored with warm soup that the children have prepared, warm clothing and blankets for those who need it. The project has a double benefit - the students receive a mature character who accompanies them and listens to them, while the Holocaust survivors receive a weekly visit that dispels their loneliness.
The guide Zivia, Aliza and Shoshi // Photo: Michelle Dot Com
Shoshi (pseudonym) says: "It really excites me to be part of the project, it gives me strengths and appreciation for life, to see the smile of the Holocaust winners we come to visit. It makes me happy in my heart, I feel that I give of myself and it empowers me. Waiting for Wednesday. I feel the survivors are my grandmothers, I love to hear their story, I've been on my project and my heroines for several years. "
One of the survivors is Aliza Danielson, known by the children as Aliza Alma, who usually makes cookies for the children: "I do not feel sorry for myself, I am proud and happy," she says. "I have six married children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I will beat the Nazis to their name, and the students who come to visit me are like my children. They have love and care and I am happy and happy to visit them."
The testimony of her survivor has become part of adulthood: Elder Goren (17) and his friends, and Sarah Weinstein (85)
"Usually, when you learn things that have happened so long ago, you don't feel like you have anything to do with them," admits Elder Goren. "Then Sarah Weinstein came over and told her personal story and we were shocked. Everything became so tangible."
Goren (17), a 11th grader at the bitter Amut School in Rehovot, points to a common problem of teaching the Holocaust to youth, but for him the solution - meeting with survivors - has also become a task: together with his classmates, Uri Reedy and Asaf Yona, And as part of adulthood, Goren wrote the story of Holocaust survivors as part of the Hamad study of history studies in Hamad. The project brings to the school survivors, they tell their story, and then the students are divided into groups and write work based on the testimonies.
Assaf Goren, Sarah Weinstein, Uri Reedy and Asaf Yona
Weinstein (85) was born in Poland. Her family members were transferred to the ghetto, she fled there with the help of a Christian family, and for three years lived in the woods and survived despite her injuries. "When we sit in the room, the children are so fascinated that they can hardly move away," Weinstein says of the meetings, "they ask questions and are very interested. It makes me wonderful: I can convey to students what I have been through, and they can pass on to future generations. It is ours that we make an effort to do so so that there is no further Holocaust. "
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Elder: "Only when she told me did I understand what she and others really went through, and I also learned a lesson in life: to appreciate what we have, the family, the parents, and the survivors who are still living among us. There is also a message that nothing is understandable. It is lovely that there are Holocaust survivors who are ready To come and tell their story - and our works keep that memory alive - these people are heroes. "
"We play together and learn from each other": Nitzan Halperin (15) and his friends at the European Coffee Club
It is important for Nitzan Halperin of Raanana to send a message to his peers, who want to volunteer with Holocaust survivors: "There is nothing to be afraid of. What they are dealing with today and not giving up is part of the growing up process, and there are some really funny people among them as well. "
Nitzan (15) came to this insight as part of a volunteer activity for the community. Once every two weeks, he and 15 other students come to the Social Cafe Division of the Holocaust Survivors' Club of Social Services in the Raanana Municipality, where they meet dozens of Holocaust survivors, talk to them about various issues and play games together, with an emphasis on thinking games, which help to preserve memory. And challenge thinking.
Nitzan Halperin at the European Coffee Club with the survivors
"At first, it was a little daunting," says Nitzan, a ninth-grader in the "Sharon" division in the city, "I had fears that there would be gaps, but even after the first meeting, I had a lot of fun. I realized it was something that could contribute to me and I could contribute to it. There is a lot of games, some old and some new, and then they happen to teach us how to play them. The other games are more up-to-date, and then our job is to teach them. Joint learning, each one teaches the other, each one gets from the other. "
The young and the survivors cooperate not only in the games. "Throughout the year we do activity together, whether it's Holocaust Day ceremonies or Purim celebrations. I can attest to myself that my grandmother is a Holocaust survivor and she came to school, told her story and she also comes to the club where I volunteer. It's very close to us. It's important to me to be in touch with this generation, to bring them joy and happiness. It's important to give yourself that what you get is so much bigger than what you give. "