Category: Holocaust

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Don’t Give Up Hope!

We have reached the next phase of our Partisan Song project: Don’t Give Up Hope.

In April 2018 we will commemorate 75 years of the Partisan Poem, Zog Nit Keynmol, written by Hirsh Glik, aged 20, in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943.
This anthem is sung around the world at Yom Hashoah ceremonies on Holocaust Remembrance and Heroes Day.
Glik’s poem of hope, heroes and resistance is the legacy of the Partisans and the Survivors. We must continue to honour it!
It is still mostly sung in the original Yiddish with the result that many, especially the younger generation, do not understand the meaning, inspiration and context of the poem.
We have found the solution for this!
While there is no need to change the language we traditionally sing it in, we have created a site where we can read and study the words in our own language and understand Glik’s inspiration, and its context.
The poem is now available in 23 languages:
HEBREW, ENGLISH, LITHUANIAN, POLISH, BELARUSIAN, RUSSIAN, GERMAN, SPANISH, CZECH, DUTCH, ITALIAN, RUMANIAN, FRENCH, SWEDISH, PORTUGUESE, NORWEGIAN, JAPANESE, FINNISH, SWISS GERMAN, AFRIKAANS, GREEK, SLOVAKIAN AND THE ORIGINAL YIDDISH
 
Here is a message for educators and those who wish to embrace the legacy of the partisans and survivors :
Share the following with students and your contacts:
  • Study the poem with learners, recite it and ask them to do the same.
  • Help them to record and make a creative video of their rendition.  Students are excellent at this.
  • Post it on social media – YouTube, Facebook, WordPress, Dropbox, WhatsApp, Google Drive etc. Set a deadline before 27 January 2018, the International Holocaust Remembrance day (Auschwitz Liberation Day).
  • Email the address of the posting to eli@elirab.com  so that we can share the videos on that date.
  • Examples can be found here: http://elirab.me/poem/
  • Organise students and friends into groups to make a second video, singing the song in a language or languages of your choice, in time for posting before Yom Hashoah on 11 April 2018.
  • Examples here: http://elirab.me/videos/
The outcomes for both educators and learners participating in this free project include:
  • Understanding the meaning, inspiration and context of the Partisan poem;
  • Having a greater appreciation of poetry;
  • Learning some Yiddish;
  • Singing the anthem;
  • Being creative;
  • Connecting with other groups of teachers and learners;
  • Honouring the legacy of the partisans and survivors; and
  • Being inspired!
This is an updated video on the project so far:

For more details of our work since January, please visit the website: http://elirab.me/zog-nit-keynmol/
Here is a message from Phillip Maisel, 95, survivor and friend of Hirsh Glik:

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75th Anniversary of the Partisan Song

We are planning a series of worldwide events leading  up to the 75th anniversary of the Partisan Song next April.

This 4 minute interview with Phillip Maisel below highlights the importance of the Partisan Song, and the role of our youth in keeping alive the legacy of Hirsh Glik’s poem of hope!

Phillip, 95, was a friend of  Hirsh Glik, and one of the first to hear this poem recited in the Vilna Gheto in 1943

I visited the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne: www.jhc.org.au

and Mount Scopus Memorial College: www.scopus.vic.edu.au

where I presented my Partisan Poem and Song Project to leading Jewish educationalists and oulines the plans leading up to Yom Hashoah.

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At the Jewish Holocaust Centre

With Sue Hampel, Ricki Mainzer, Anne Gawenda, Edwin Glasenberg, Phillip Maisel & Freydi Mrocki
With Sue Hampel, Ricki Mainzer, Anne Gawenda, Michael Cohen, Phillip Maisel & Freydi Mrocki

My presentation (slides):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3a8s3c3IdK_S0VtMkdlTU4za2s?usp=sharing

JHC Slides – Google Drive

The videos are mostly here –  http://elirab.me/timeline/

With Ely Segal

With Amanda Castelan-Starr, the Jewish Studies Curriculum Co-ordinator

This is the full 27 minute interview with Phillip:

Freydi Mrocki reciting the Partisan poem at the Jewish Holocaust Centre.

Video: Emmanuel T Santos.

New resources found in the NYPL

Reprinted from Radical Yiddish with permission of Joel Schechter.

Yuri Suhl Article from 1953 – a must read!

More details on the program to follow!

 

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Alli Passes On

Alli Bak Itzkowitz – The last of her generation

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/obituary.aspx?n=Alli-Bock-Itzkowitz&pid=186445752

A month after I met Alli Bak Itzkowitz for the first time, she passed away.

Alli was my mother Raele (Ray) Zeldin Rabinowitz’s first cousin.

They never met!

When Alli and I met in North Dallas in July, we shared stories, laughed, held hands and exchanged Yiddish rhymes

Here are photos from my visit:

A family dinner held on 20 July 2017

Part of the Zeldin family tree that Marny printed.

Alli and her son Gene

Videos

From my previous post

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Meet Alli Bak Itzkowitz

A young Alli

 

Here is my relationship chart to Alli, my mother’s first cousin and the last of her ZELDIN generation. They never met.

Allis’ paternal Bak grandparents – Leib and Naomi

 

Alli’s dad, Avram Bak
Alli and her late husband Julius
Alli’s sister Luba & husband Jasha
Alli’s family. The mother Sonia in the front
Alli’s family in Memel, Lithuania
Alli, Morris Back and Harry Bock
My mum, Ray and my grandfather Socher Zeldin
Back of the photo
Gene & Vicki with their daughter, Marny and her husband Cody

Alli is a Holocaust Survivor and has  her  testimony recorded  at USHMM as well as the Spielberg Foundation.

The USHMM link is here:

Oral history interview with Alli Itzkowitz – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn506601

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Alli – The Last of her Generation

Meet Alli Bak Itzkowitz

A young Alli

Only 3 hours 15 minutes from Perth to Sydney, but 15 and a half hours to Dallas!

I left Perth at 5:15 am and arrived in Dallas at 2pm the same day.  A 13 hour time change!

A nice and warm 38C –  100F  day in Dallas.

My first time here, and the first time I’m meeting my Texas family.

I was met  at the Dallas – Fort Worth Airport by Gene Itzkowitz, my second cousin on our mothers’ sides. Gene and his wife, Vicki are hosting me here in Dallas.

This must be Texas!

Alli and her younger son Gene

Here is my relationship chart to Alli, my mother’s first cousin and the last of her ZELDIN generation. They never met.

Allis’ paternal Bak grandparents – Leib and Naomi

 

Alli’s dad, Avram Bak
Alli and her late husband Julius
Alli’s sister Luba & husband Jasha
Alli’s family. The mother Sonia in the front
Alli’s family in Memel, Lithuania
Alli, Morris Back and Harry Bock
My mum, Ray and my grandfather Socher Zeldin
Back of the photo
Gene & Vicki with their daughter, Marny and her husband Cody

Alli is a Holocaust Survivor and has  her  testimony recorded  at USHMM as well as the Spielberg Foundation.

The USHMM link is here:

Oral history interview with Alli Itzkowitz – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn506601

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London

Geraldine & Sarah
Arrival in London at Stanstead Airport

A visit to Google, DeepMind & Neil
St Pancras Station
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St Pancras railway station – Wikipedia

St Pancras railway station (/seɪnt ˈpæŋkrəs/ or /sənt ˈpæŋkrəs/), also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus located on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_railway_station

The British Library
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Newton

British Library – Wikipedia

Coordinates: 51°31′46″N 0°07′37″W / 51.52944°N 0.12694°W / 51.52944; -0.12694

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Library

On the Tube and the Trains
Hammersmith Station
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Memorial in Baker Street Tube

Meeting people
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Saul Issroff
The Wiener Library

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Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide – Wikipedia

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide (German pronunciation: [ˈviːnɐ ]); is the world’s oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the persecution of the Jews under the Nazis, it was transformed into a research institute and public access library after the end of World War II and is now situated in Russell Square, London.[2]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Library_for_the_Study_of_the_Holocaust_and_Genocide

The West End
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Oxford Street

West End of London – Wikipedia

The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is an area of Central and West London in which many of the city’s major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres, are concentrated.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_End_of_London

Selfridges

Selfridges, Oxford Street – Wikipedia

Selfridges is a Grade II listed retail premises on Oxford Street in London. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909.[1] Still the headquarters of Selfridge & Co. department stores, with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space,[2] the store is the second largest retail premises in the UK,[1] half as big as the biggest department store in Europe, Harrods.[2] It was named the world’s best department store in 2010,[3] and again in 2012.[4]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfridges,_Oxford_Street

Hammersmith
Natalie Rabinowitz
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Westminster
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Westminster Abbey
St Albans

First Bunnings in the UK. Bunnings was started in Perth, Australia. Ten minute walk from Neil

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Around the Nunnery
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The Town
Reading Material

Read the character names on these pages – amazing coincidence – Roly Poly Bird saves Jill! Roly Poly is what the grandkids call me!

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St Albans – Wikipedia

St Albans /sənt ˈɔːlbənz/, /seɪn … / is a city in Hertfordshire, England, and the major urban area in the City and District of St Albans. It lies east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, about 19 miles (31 km) north-northwest of London, 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles (18 km) south-southeast of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north, and it became the Roman city of Verulamium. It is a historic market town and is now a dormitory town within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans

Back to Australia – Dubai
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Flying somewhere!
Video Player

 

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Jerusalem 17

The inside of the Hurva

On the bus at the entrance to Jerusalem

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Family & Friends

Shopping in Jerusalem

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At Centre One

Mahane Yehuda Market – Wikipedia

Mahane Yehuda Market (Hebrew: שוק מחנה יהודה‎, Shuk Mahane Yehuda), often referred to as “The Shuk”,[1] is a marketplace (originally open-air, but now at least partially covered) in Jerusalem, Israel. Popular with locals and tourists alike, the market’s more than 250 vendors[2] sell fresh fruits and vegetables; baked goods; fish, meat and cheeses; nuts, seeds, and spices; wines and liquors; clothing and shoes; and housewares, textiles, and Judaica.[3][4]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahane_Yehuda_Market

Newly discovered old family photos

Hadara
From Orla, Poland to Volksrust, Transvaal, South Africa
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Moshe Zalman Rabinowitz

Personal Journeys: From One Photograph to Journeys of Research and Discovery – Avotaynu Online

All I ever knew was that I am named after my great-uncle Moshe. Moshe died in a motor accident, six weeks before his planned wedding. The date of his death is unknown, but it was sometime between the late 1920s …

Source: www.avotaynuonline.com/2016/08/from-one-photograph-to-journeys-of-research-and-discovery/

On our way to Machane Yehuda

Nachi

Nachi
Richard & Nachi
Richard & Cheryl
Alfi

Early morning walk from Talpiot to the Old City

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The Hurva represents the community that my 3rd great grandfather, Avraham Shlomo Zalman Tzoref (Salomon) established in 1811.

The Hurva

Hurva Synagogue – Wikipedia

The Hurva Synagogue, (Hebrew: בית הכנסת החורבה‎‎, translit: Beit ha-Knesset ha-Hurva, lit. “The Ruin Synagogue”), also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid (“Ruin of Rabbi Judah the Pious”), is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurva_Synagogue

The Kotel

Western Wall – Wikipedia

The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel (Hebrew:  הַכֹּתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי‎ (help·info), translit.: HaKotel HaMa’aravi; Ashkenazic pronunciation: HaKosel HaMa’arovi; Arabic: حائط البراق‎‎, translit.: Ḥā’iṭ al-Burāq, translat.: the Buraq Wall, or Arabic: المبكى‎‎ al-Mabkā: the Place of Weeping) is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the “Western Wall”. The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, in a large rectangular structure topped by a huge flat platform, thus creating more space for the Temple itself and its auxiliary buildings.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall

Back to Yeshurun Synagogue via Mamilla

Tony Sachs

On the way to Yad Vashem

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Yad Vashem International School For Holocaust Studies

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The Partisan Memorial area

Tehilla, Jane & Allison

Yad Vashem – Wikipedia

Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יָד וַשֵׁם‎) is Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead; honouring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yad_Vashem

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A Day in Krakow

The Train Station

Kraków Główny railway station – Wikipedia

Kraków Główny Osobowy (commonly called Dworzec Główny, Polish for Main station) is the largest and the most centrally located railway station in Kraków. The building, constructed between 1844 and 1847 (architect: P.Rosenbaum), lies parallel to the tracks. The design was chosen to allow for future line expansion. The station was initially a terminus of the Kraków – Upper Silesia Railway (Kolej Krakowsko-Górnośląska, German: Obeschlesische-Krakauer Eisenbahn). Trains entered the trainshed via a brick archway at the northern end of the station which was almost doubled in size in 1871.[1]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraków_Główny_railway_station

Kazimierz

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The Remu Synagogue and Cemetery

My relationship to Yisrael Isserles, whose matseva is behind me

At the matsevot of my ancestors

Kupa Synagogue

First time in this shul – restored since I was last in Krakow.

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The Jewish Cemetery

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The Izaak Synagogue

Maariv with Rabbi Eliezer Gurary

With Rabbi Eliezer Gurary

Klezmerhois

With Leopold Koslowski, King of Klezmer

Meeting Leopold Koslowski, still going strong!

JCC Krakow

With Anna Gulinska

Posters & Books

Kazimierz – Wikipedia

Kazimierz (Polish pronunciation: [kaˈʑimʲɛʂ]; Latin: Casimiria; Yiddish: קוזמיר‎ Kuzimyr) is a historical district of Kraków and Kraków Old Town, Poland. Since its inception in the fourteenth century to the early nineteenth century, Kazimierz was an independent city, a royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, located south of Kraków Old Town and separated by a branch of the Vistula river. For many centuries, Kazimierz was a place of coexistence and interpenetration of ethnic Polish and Jewish cultures, its north-eastern part of the district was historic Jewish, whose Jewish inhabitants were forcibly relocated in 1941 by the German occupying forces into the Krakow ghetto just across the river in Podgórze. Today Kazimierz is one of the major tourist attractions of Krakow and an important center of cultural life of the city.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz

The Ghetto

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Kraków Ghetto – Wikipedia

The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews, as well as the staging area for separating the “able workers” from those who would later be deemed unworthy of life.[1] The Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to their deaths at Bełżec extermination camp as well as Płaszów slave-labor camp,[2] and Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres (37 mi) rail distance.[3]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraków_Ghetto

The River Vistula

Vistula – Wikipedia

The Vistula (/ˈvɪstjʊlə/; Polish: Wisła [ˈvʲiswa], German: Weichsel [ˈvaɪksl̩], Low German: Wießel, Yiddish: ווייסל‎ Yiddish pronunciation: [vajsl̩]) is the longest and largest river in Poland, at 1,047 kilometres (651 miles) in length. The drainage basin area of the Vistula is 194,424 km2 (75,068 sq mi), of which 168,699 km2 (65,135 sq mi) lies within Poland (splitting the country in half). The remainder is in Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vistula

The Old Town

Kraków Old Town – Wikipedia

Kraków Old Town is the historic central district of Kraków, Poland.[2] It is one of the most famous old districts in Poland today and was the center of Poland’s political life from 1038 until King Sigismund III Vasa relocated his court to Warsaw in 1596.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraków_Old_Town

Kazimierz by night

With Magda Brudzinska, klezmer singer

I bumped Magda in the square in the Kazimierz. I remembered her from her concert I attended at the Klezmerhois in 2011.  See video below

Magda also features in Judy Menczel’s movie – Pockets of Hope with Fay Sussman

 

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From Keidan to Ra’anana to Orlando

 Kedainiai June 2017

Original article in Lithuanian

http://www.rinkosaikste.lt/naujienos/aktualijos/gimnazistams-kdainietik-akn-turinio-ydo-paskaita

Google Translated

with a little help from me!

Gimnazistai – kėdainietiškų Jewish Roots Lecture

Akvilė KUPČINSKAITĖ – 19:00 June 13th. 2017

“Atžalyno Gymnasium was visited by a Jewish guest from Australia, who has  kėdainietiškų roots. Eli Rabinowitz met with the academic staff at the high school, attended project activities and visited the Kėdainiai Regional Museum. 

Report

The guest to Kėdainiai was invited by Atžalyno High School English teacher Laima Ardavičienė. Since 2012, Laima has been working on a project in which high school students learn in more detail about the history of the Jewish community in our country. Every year, the high school is visited by Eli Rabinowitz and they share their experiences and insights. The project is carried out in English, so that students not only broaden their minds, but also enhance their English language skills.

This year the theme was Jewish holidays. When we celebrate Christmas, Jews celebrate the Chanukah festival. Eli Rabinowitz arranged a virtual conference and introduced the festival. Guests who come to Lithuania continue the story of the other traditional Jewish holidays.

The Modern generation does not have time to read long stories. Eli Rabinowitz

Not for the first time

Eli Rabinowitz has visited Kėdainiai each year since 2012. The first time was to to search for his ancestors. In his opinion, Jews should actively search their roots. According to Eli, 95 percent of South African Jews came from Lithuania. Eli has travelled extensively throughout Central and Eastern Europe and has recorded traces of Jewish culture here, taking many pictures and videos. Since 2011, he has taken 18000 photos, using these images in slideshows, which is a good format to convey his experience to the younger generation.

“Young people do not have time to read or hear long stories.  Students all over the world prefer stories in short video clips, and other multimedia material “, – said Eli Rabinowitz.

Partisan Song – Vilna ghetto

Earlier this year Eli Rabinowitz was invited to present his project to a large South African high school. There, the students sang the Partisan Song in Yiddish, but did not understand the meaning of this song and the inspiration behind it.

“The song was written in 1943 in the Vilna ghetto by a 20-year-old Jew, Hirsh Glik, who was later killed. It has since then become the anthem of the Holocaust Survivors and is sung regularly. I want this song to spread to young people, so that they recite, sing and understand the meaning”- says Eli Rabinowitz.

The song has also been translated into Lithuanian. A student at Atzalyno  recites it as a poem, with a viola playing in the background and images of old Kedainiai.

“To know one’s history is important for us all, because if you do not know where you come from, you do not know where you are headed”, – says Eli  Rabinowitz wisely.

 

 

12 June 2017

Litvak Roots Lecture in Ra’anana

On June 12th, Eli Rabinowitz spoke in Ra’anana on “In the Footsteps of Zalman Tzoref: Tracing 200 Years of Litvak Family History and Legacy”. The presentation followed Zalman Tzoref’s life. He left Keidan, Lithuania and traveled to Jerusalem where his mission was to rebuild the Ashkenazi community in the Old City. In 2012, Eli returned to the town and re-established his family connections with Tzoref’s birthplace.

Eli Rabinowitz is involved in a wide range of Jewish community activities, including filming events, research, education, arranging exhibitions and lecturing on Jewish cultural heritage and family history.

Orlando Florida 26 July 2017  5pm – 6:15pm

In the Footsteps of Zalman Tzoref: Tracing 200 Years of Litvak Family History and Legacy
Venue: Walt Disney World Swan Resort
Room: Swan 2
At the last two IAJGS conferences a movie about Tzoref was shown. This presentation follows in the movie’s and Tzoref’s footsteps and goes beyond! In 1811, Avraham Shlomo Zalman Tzoref, inspired by the Vilna Gaon, left Keidan, Lithuania for Jerusalem where his mission was to rebuild the Ashkenazi community in the Old City. Tzoref was murdered in 1851, but the story certainly does not end there. We reflect on Tzoref’s life and achievements through his 20,000 strong Salomon descendants, who for 200 years have made their mark as part of his enduring legacy. In 2011, exactly 200 years after Tzoref left Keidan, I return to the town, now called Kedainiai, and re-establish my family connections with his birthplace. Within a few years, I have become active in building bridges in this town in a most unusual way!

 

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