SOMA Holocaust remembrance service urges us to never forget
How do we prevent our history from disappearing, especially when remembering the past can be uncomfortable and disturbing? History books may capture the facts of the Holocaust, but they can’t necessarily evoke emotions. South Orange and Maplewood have eyewitnesses to tell their stories, as well as passionate community members who work to keep those stories alive.
Founded in 1977 as the first event of its kind in New Jersey, the Remember & Tell SOMA Annual Interfaith Service commemorates the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, one of the darkest periods in 20th-century history. Each year, the service offers a platform for survivors and witnesses to share their personal experiences, ensuring that their voices and memories endure. In addition to remembering and telling, the service and surrounding events teach younger generations about events that have become distant in time and collective memory.
Remember & Tell was established by a group of interfaith leaders. Founders include Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth El and president of the Rabbinical Assembly of New Jersey, Max Randall of the South Mountain Lodge of B’nai B’rith, and Sister Rose Thering, professor of Jewish-Christian studies at Seton Hall University. Sister Thering was an activist who fought against antisemitism within the Catholic Church.
“We make it our business to invite all the clergy from all of the houses of worship in the communities to attend,” says Alan Levine, an organizer for the service. “This is not an event targeted to just Jewish people. Of course, we have plenty of Jewish people attend, but we really want to bring in people from all of the congregations, and for people who are not part of congregations, because there’s plenty of people in the communities who do not belong to any house of worship.”
The 48th service on March 23 begins with the March of Remembrance and Hope at 3 p.m. at Spiotta Park in South Orange. The march honors the 11 million Holocaust victims and survivors. Participants will walk to Congregation Beth El in South Orange, where the service will begin at 4 p.m. “Every year we have the service at a different congregation, and every year we alternate between a church and a synagogue,” says Levine.
“It’s quite special for us at Beth El to host the interfaith Holocaust service for the simple fact that our rabbi emeritus, Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein of blessed memory, was one of the founders, decades and decades ago,” says Rabbi Jesse Olitzky of Congregation Beth El. “It was under his leadership that it has continued until this day. And the emphasis is, along with Sister Rose [Thering], to make sure that it was not just specifically a Jewish experience, about bringing the people of all faiths. I think, especially now, with heightened antisemitism in this world, what the Jewish community desperately needs is allyship and partnership.”
The service at Beth El will feature Jud Newborn, PhD, who will speak on the theme of “Resistance and Resilience.” Dr. Newborn, a founding historian at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, is a recipient of the Anne Frank Center’s “Spirit of Anne Frank Human Rights Award” and co-author of a special anniversary edition of “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose.”
When Sister Rose Thering died in 2006, the headline of her New York Times obituary read, “Sister Rose Thering, Nun Dedicated to Bridging Gap With Judaism, Dies at 85.” The Sister Rose Thering Holocaust Education Award was established in her memory and is a revered part of the service. This year, the award will go to Maplewood architect Stephen Schwartz and 101-year-old Holocaust survivor Sylvia Ben Asher who have for years worked on a collaborative project with Legos that enables youth to understand and reflect on the Holocaust.
The committee also sponsors an interfaith event “specifically directed to our youth to help further educate them on the Holocaust,” says Levine. Organized by Maplewood resident Diane Beni, the event will be hosted by Our Lady of Sorrows on May 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. The program is geared toward middle school through college students.
This year, the speaker will be Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman, a Polish-born American who was deported to Auschwitz as a young girl and confined in a section designated for children. In a recent interview with The New York Times, she recalls arriving by train and witnessing a thick, ominous smoke lingering in the air. “I knew what this meant. We all knew,” she recalls, referring to the smoke from the camp’s crematorium.
“Tova is one of the youngest people to survive the Nazi Holocaust and one of only five children who survived from her hometown,” says Levine. “She witnessed atrocities she’d never forget. Earlier this year, she was present at Auschwitz for the 80th anniversary of its liberation.” In addition to being a celebrated author, Friedman and her grandson, Aron Goodman, founded TovaTok, (tovatok.com), a social media account that educates youth about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Although the speakers and organizers provide a variety of perspectives, they are unified on one major point: the rise of antisemitism after the war that followed the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has made educating about the Holocaust even more crucial. In addition, they lament that fewer living survivors are available to share their experience with young generations.
“There are fewer and fewer survivors left to tell their stories and to share eyewitness accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust, and we know all too well that if we do not teach about history, then history is destined to repeat itself,” says Rabbi Olitzky. “And so our goal – our task – is to make sure that we aren’t just teaching members of the Jewish community about our past, this terrible stain on human history, but that we are educating our neighbors and friends so that they will feel impassioned and empowered to stand side by side with us, as we say: never again.”
Using Legos to Teach About the Holocaust
Almost 20 years ago, Maplewood architect Stephen Schwartz attended a program at the Holocaust Council of the United Jewish Communities of Metrowest. He met Sylvia Ben Asher, a survivor of the Holocaust who shared her story at a “lunch and learn” event.
Schwartz pitched a collaborative project to Ben Asher, whose nickname is Nessa, the Hebrew word for “miracle.” “I explained to Nessa that I have a way of teaching people about subjects through the use of Lego building blocks,” says Schwartz. “I asked her if it was possible that she could help me develop a map of the Warsaw Ghetto, and I could do a two-hour Lego program where we would actually build the wall around the large ghetto.”
While Schwartz worked with the students on building, Ben Asher would explain her experiences as a teenager who rescued Jews – many children – from the Warsaw Ghetto. Disguised as a Christian, she secretly transported children out of the ghetto and entrusted them to non-Jewish families. She also rescued her father, but her mother and sister were sent to the extermination camp in Treblinka. “I remember everything,” she says. “It is so important to remember.”
At first, Ben Asher would say very little while Schwartz began the project with the students. But as she watched the children work with him on mapping out the ghetto, she would chime in with specific street names she would recall. “Once you got her going, she would just take over. She would get these kids so engrossed in her story that it was amazing,” says Schwartz.
“When I spoke to the children, some children understood. And some don’t understand,” says Ben Asher. “But I finish always [by telling them] listen, sweet children. We must think about this. You have wonderful schools. You have a wonderful theater. You have everything wonderful. But who knows? Something can happen.”
Donny Levit is a writer, theater director, and radio DJ living in Atlanta with his wife, two kids, and two dogs. Catch his radio shows on IG at @jazzmonsters and @newishradio
Comments