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Moving ceremony gathers NST residents, family and friends BY STEPHEN VRATTOS Photos Stephen Vrattos “My name is Eva Kessner and I am a child survivor of the Holocaust.” Thus, opened the Yom Hashoah Memorial ceremony Monday evening, April 24. More than 200 people filled the VIP Room to pay their respects and “remember.” After dutifully thanking co-sponsors Board of Hadassah and North Shore Towers Board of Directors and its Special Projects committee for their invaluable help in helping put the evening’s program together, Kessner explained the importance of the evening, one which should never be regulated to but a single day, but spoken of every day. “From year to year, it recedes a little further into the past, but the magnitude of it remains beyond our comprehension, and the pain of it beyond consolation,” she explained. “All we know for certain is that we have a duty to remember, for the sake those who perished, so that they may not be forgotten; for the sake of those descendants who survive them, so that they may know they are not alone in their sorrow; for our own sake, so that we may not be blind to the evil of which human beings are capable; and for the sake of future generations, so that they may consider well what is needful to present such a “shoah,” such a destruction, from happening again to our people or to any people; we pledge ourselves to remember.” NST’s beloved friend Rabbi Michael Klayman from the Lake Success Jewish Center followed with the night’s invocation. He spoke of the four children spoken about during the yearly Passover seder, each reflecting a different stage in life, as well as a specific aspect of the Jewish experience. Singling out the “rasha,” or “wicked child,” Klayman argued his belief the child may be cynical or contrary, but not necessarily evil. More importantly, the rasha’s actions—the vociferous wrestling and questioning of the Jewish tradition, inspiring us to think and engage in essential dialogue. “I welcome this child, because the rasha refuses to be silent,” he explained. Far more dangerous, the fourth child, “the child who does not know how to ask a question.” According to Klayman, “This child represents a person who is silent or indifferent to the Jewish causes, and that palpable and alarming silence suggests a person totally dismissive of Jewish identity and Jewish experience, past and future.” The spirit of the fourth child is anathema to that of Yom Hashoah and all-the-more destructive, as the survivor generation of the Holocaust continues to disappear. “As the younger generation continues to distance itself from the Jewish people, their silence contributes to Hitler’s objective to annihilate the Jewish people… Let us not ever accept silence.” Holocaust program committee member Marcia Jacobson then recited a poem, “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” composed in 1942 by Pave Friedman, while a child of the Terezin Concentration camps. The beautiful sentiment was an appropriate lead-in to the traditional lighting of six memorial candles, representing the six million “who never saw another butterfly.” Peri Hirsh, Auschwitz survivor from Romania; Jolana Dienstag, Auschwitz survivor from Romania; Gloria Glantz, the evening’s speaker and survivor from Poland; Lily Perry, a survivor from Vienna; Eva Ebin, a survivor from Hungary; Rickie Nordhauser, a survivor from Vienna, and Sydney Nordhauser, a survivor from Germany, lit the candles in turn, then the whole congregation arose to observe a moment of silence. Transitioning melodically, Great Neck South high school sophomore, Dani Drucker, performed a lovely rendition of “Ani Ma’amin.” Along with singing lead in her school’s musical shows and participating in the opera program, Drucker has sung for various fundraisers for such as the IDF, Hadassah, as well as for cancer patients as Long Island Jewish Hospital. Drucker’s performance became even more poignant when Kessner revealed Drucker was singing in memory of her grandmother Dolly Wilkin, who lived in Building #1 and passed away two months prior. “I think it’s so important to bring in the next generation and the generation after that to carry on the memory,” Kessner said. NST Board Member and Special Projects Chair Bob Ricken introduced the night’s speaker, Gloria Yom Hashoah Ceremonial lighting of six candles by Holocaust survivors Honored guest Gloria Glantz 16  NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER  ¢  June 2017


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