Yom HaShoah

Join us for an evening of Reflection, Remembrance, and Education.

Upon arrival, explore the poignant Poster Exhibition from Yad Vashem titled “Spots of Light: To Be a Woman in the Holocaust,” on display in the lobby. Special guest Michael Polgar, PhD will be present to engage in meaningful discussions and answer questions about the exhibit.

The program will include:

• Yom HaShoah Memorial Service
• A screening of the Israeli documentary film “The Final Victory: The Story of Felix Zandman”
• Followed by an interactive Q&A session with Ariele Klausner, daughter of Felix Zandman.
• This important event honors the memory of Holocaust victims and celebrates the resilience of those who survived. All are welcome. Scroll down to read more about the exhibition and film.

MORE ABOUT:

“The Final Victory: The Story of Felix Zandman”

This documentary tells the story of Dr. Felix Zandman, a Holocaust survivor who became a known physicist and industrialist whose inventions created a revaluation in the electronically component industry. Zandman was born in 1927 in Grodno, then Poland, and survived the Holocaust in a secret hiding he shared with his uncle and 3 other Jews for 17 months. During his hiding he was taught by his uncle, an engineer, mathematics and physics. After the war he went to France and studied physics and engineering. In the early 60s he moved to the United States and established Vishay co-operation. Some 39 patents are named after his name. In Israel, which he visits frequently, he owns 6 companies. The film that is divided to several parts, each tells a different victory story, explores Zandman’s exceptional story. Including archive footage, family photos and interviews with Shimon Pertes and Ariel Sharon.

MORE ABOUT

“Spots of Light: To Be a Woman in the Holocaust”

This exhibit explores the unique voice of Jewish women during the Holocaust. It focuses on examining the position of women during the Holocaust and the ways in which they coped with and responded to unforeseen situations. The Nazi ideology viewed women as agents of fertility. This ideology identified the Jewish woman as an element that must be exterminated to thwart the rise of future generations of Jews. For these reasons, the Nazis treated women as prime targets for annihilation. Jewish women inhabited a society that was conservative and patriarchal, with males as heads of household and women discharging traditional roles at home or helping to make a living. Accordingly, women did not participate in the leadership that was tasked with shepherding the Jewish public during the Holocaust. Instead, Jewish women assumed the main family role – the “affirmation of life”: the attempt to survive in any situation. Women in the Holocaust applied their minds to a place that deprived them of their minds; brought strength to a place where they had no strength. And in a place where they and their families had no right to live, they marched all the way to death and invested every additional moment of life with meaning. It is these women’s voices that we wish to sound and whose stories to tell.

Brought to you in partnership with Congregation Ohav Zedek, Friedman JCC, Temple B’nai B’rith and Temple Israel