« They rock | Main | Tea Time »
July 19, 2008
Annual state Holocaust Commemoration marks important anniversaries
State Senate president pro tempore, Donald Williams, left, presides, as Corey Katz, a student at the Merkaz Community High School for Judaic Studies in Bridgeport, helps Manfred Lobel light a memorial candle. Lobel survived Shanghai and the Hong Kew Ghetto. Harold Shapiro plays the flute.
Photo credit: Regina Madwed, Capitol PhotoInteractive
This year’s annual Statewide Holocaust Commemoration at the state Capitol was a landmark event. It was the 30th anniversary of the program, and, in bittersweet irony, it coincided with the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood. And for the first time in Connecticut history, the Israeli flag flew over the Capitol.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell read a proclamation noting it was also the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which signaled the horror to come.
Guest speaker Martin Schiller of Fairfield, a survivor of Skarzysko-Kamienna and Buchenwald, talked about his experience. His memoir, “Bread, Butter and Sugar,” gives a full account of the trauma.
Lighting the memorial candles for the 6 million who perished were Schiller and five other survivors: Ernest Nemeth, Elizabeth Deutsch, Manfred Lobel, Mila Nishball and Herb Mann. Each was accompanied by a student partner from the Adopt a Survivor program run by Marjorie B. Krubiner, director of the Merkaz Community High School for Judaic Studies in Bridgeport. Each student meets and learns about the life of a survivor and pledges to tell that survivor’s story for as long as the student lives.
The HaZamir International Jewish High School Choir of Fairfield performed and Bridgeport students Tranisha Blackwell of Central High School and Anthony Whitaker of Harding High School sang the national anthem.
Following the commemoration, Robert Fishman, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut, was honored for creating and directing the Statewide Holocaust program for three decades.
Posted by Bustraan on July 19, 2008 7:18 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://forum.connpost.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1553
