Chaim Bargman has been a beloved guide and genealogist for international Jewish-interest tourists in the Kaunas (Kovno) area for decades, and was immortalized in the late Dan Jacobson’s Heshel’s Kingdom (1998).
With a previous speaker, Dr Samuel Kassow in Seattle WA
With Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Program Director of Polin, Warsaw
The Sydney Jewish Museum is looking for people who have an interest in history, to join them as volunteers to guide school students through the Museum on school excursions. Before they can apply to be a guide, they need to complete the attached course.
As part of their Holocaust Studies program the Year 10 students, in small groups, have interviewed Perth Holocaust survivors and recorded their stories. The personal experiences of the “living historian” opens up a view of history that cannot be found in books. The lessons in life and insights that the students have gained from meeting with their allocated survivors will stay with them long after the project and their years at school have ended.
We usually have an evening where we invite the survivors and parents of the students to view their projects, but we felt that with the amount of effort the students put in to their work, one night is not sufficient. We will therefore be opening our very special exhibition to the Perth Jewish Community on Thursday 27 October at 7pm in the Breckler Troy Hall in the High School.
We invite you to come and view the students’ displays and gain some insight into the lives of the Perth Holocaust survivors and their experiences.
Shirley Atlas – Jewish History teacher
Carmel School, Perth Australia
I attended this excellent event which began with an introduction by Jewish History teacher, Shirley Atlas, followed by groups of Year 10 students introducing their survivor’s story. We were then invited to view their presentations set up around the high school hall.
The survivors featured were from Poland, Hungary, German, Holland and Lithuania.
Here are a few photos taken on the evening
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Heiny Ellert’s team – video presentation:
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Here is my update on the TECs – Tolerance Education Centres in Lithuania and how we can help build bridges.
If you know the name of your shtetl, please contact me and I will help you to connect with those who are working with TECs and Lithuanian school students and their teachers. Travelling to the region and meeting with local students has been the most rewarding of my experiences in the past six years.
There are growing numbers of Lithuanians, Poles and those within other communities in the FSU who now learn about their history and about the rich Jewish life that once existed in these towns, which are now devoid of Jews. The internet now offers the best opportunity ever for them to engage with Jewish people from abroad.
There is a further benefit: we can educate our children and grandchildren here in the Litvak diaspora. So little seems to be availble within the school curriculum, even though private Jewish Day School fees are so high. “Too hard” or “we are covering it” is what I hear! And then there is also the no response…… and another year passes!
It is a real shame that our cultural heritage is in danger of fading away and dying!
Educating about our Jewish cultural history remains my passion and I hope and that there are enough of us out there to make a difference!
There are now 119 Tolerance Education Centres in Lithuania.
Established by the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
The Commission was established upon the Lithuanian independence, and has been under the chairmanship of Emmanuel Zingeris, the long-serving Jewish Member of the Seimas.
In 2004 the Tolerance Centre principle was approved. The Tolerance Centre in Plunge was the 8th such centre established. There are now in excess of 100. The co-ordinator of the T C in each school, or museum, has autonomy.
The emphasis on the Tolerance Centre in Plunge is on the Jewish tragedy rather than the Russian brutality. Naturally, we are more concerned with the crimes against the Jews. Programs also include a study of Jewish life before WWll.
There are a number of Jews who are against the “Commission” because they are there also to teach about the Soviet regime.
This website contains links to two separate databases. The first one is a listing of the third class railway fare from all of the train stations in Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Switzerland to le Havre and Hamburg when paid in U. S. dollars in New York or Chicago. The second database is a gazetteer of all of the locations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1905.
Further resources will be added to this website from time to time.
To view, click on Useful Resources by Edward David Luft. The site is managed by Eli Rabinowitz
Eli Rabinowitz is involved in Jewish community activities, filming events, photographing, researching, lecturing internationally and blogging on Jewish life and heritage; he presented a talk at the IAJGS 2015 conference in Jerusalem. Rabinowitz manages over 70 KehilaLinks for JewishGen. and led the first JewishGen Virtual Heritage Tour of Europe. He lives in Perth, Australia.
Molėtai (pronunciation (help·info), Polish: Malaty) is a town in north eastern Lithuania. One of the oldest settlements in Lithuania, it is a popular resort for the inhabitants of Vilnius. According to the 2013 census, it had 6,302 inhabitants.
The town is located about 60 km (37 mi) north of Vilnius and 30 km (19 mi) south of Utena.
History
It was first mentioned as a private property of the bishop of Vilnius.
On August 29, 1941, 700 to 1,200 Jews were murdered in a mass execution perpetrated by an Einsatzgruppen of Lithuanian nationalists.[2]
Museum in Washington, D.C., United States of America
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States’ official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. Wikipedia
Address: 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl SW, Washington, DC 20024, United States
I start my long 24 hour trek early tomorrow from Perth to Seattle.
I will be in Seattle until Tuesday evening.
I am giving a presentation at a South African Tea Party this Saturday afternoon. This will be of interest to those wanting to connect with their shtetl.
This talk is being held within walking distance from the Sheraton.
I plan to spend most of Monday and Tuesday meeting up with the many people I have communicated with via the 70 JewishGen KehilaLinks I write and manage.
These Jewish websites cover many countries and regions – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Belarus, Russia, South Africa, Australia and China.
If you would like to catch up with me to discuss these, your shtetl, heritage travel or just to say hello, email me at eli@elirab.com. I am likely to be near the lobby.
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