Teaneck Holocaust commemoration
For more than 30 years, the Holocaust Commemoration Committee of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Teaneck has honored the memory of Holocaust victims. Many of the original committee members are children of survivors and they include their children and grandchildren in the ceremony, passing the story on to the next generation.
This year’s commemoration will be on Wednesday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m., in the Teaneck High School auditorium. Amy Elfman and Felicia Grossman of Teaneck chair the committee.
Toby Levy of Brooklyn, this year’s speaker, was born in Chodorow, Poland, in 1933; her name then was Tonchia Eisenstein. She and nine members of her family were hidden in a neighbor’s barn until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. They were among 31 survivors of Chodorow and its environs.
Teaneck residents are given the opportunity to memorialize their family members who died in the Shoah by submitting their names, which are printed in a booklet and read aloud at the program.
There will be a dessert and musical reception at 6 p.m., where survivor families are invited to gather and listen to a performance of Yiddish and Hebrew songs by local musician Yitzy Glicksman.
During the program, Jonathan Rimberg will sing Yiddish songs and Tzipporei Shalom, Congregation Beth Sholom’s children’s choir, under the musical direction of Adina Avery Grossman and Cantor Ronit Wolff Hanan, will perform. There will also be a candle-lighting ceremony by six survivors and their families.
The candle-lighting committee is seeking a few more survivors who are willing to participate as candle lighters in this year’s program. For information, email Jeanette Malca at jmalca44@gmail.com.
Rabbi Kenneth Schiowitz of Congregation Shaare Tefillah will lead tehillim and Rabbi Yosef Adler of Congregation Rinat Yisrael will lead Kel Maleh Rachamim.
Local Jewish day schools participate in the commemoration. Students from Frisch Yeshiva High School created 15 canvases depicting the power of the words of the Shema. The artwork will be on display at the Teaneck Library during May, and will be transferred to the Bergenfield Library during June.
The committee is seeking scanned photos of survivors’ pre-war family or their town or village to be displayed at the program. Photos should be scanned at 300 dpi, cropped as necessary, and emailed to Steve at Steve@foxmarketing.com.
To RSVP for the dessert and musical reception for survivors and their families, call Annette Prager at (201) 638-5621. To donate to the Teaneck Holocaust Commemoration Committee, go to www.teaneckyomhashoa.org or mail a check to Sharon Penkower Kaplan at 534 S. Forest Drive, Teaneck, NJ 07666. For information, call Amy Elfman at (917) 576-7444 or email her at amyelfman18@gmail.com.
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