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Schools

When Jewish Generations Join in Celebration

Members of the 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivors group, spent a memorable day with the students of the Ilan Ramon Day School to celebrate Shavuot.

Members of The 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivors group, celebrated the arrival of Shavuot with the students of on Friday.

Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, is the second of the three major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance (the other two are Passover and Sukkot). The holiday commemorates the time when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the temple.

During the annual festive celebration, the students and their parents enjoy the tradition of wearing white and placing flowers in their hair. It is also a time that new babies born during the year are welcomed into the community.

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This year, the celebration was made even more special as it was shared with 35 Holocaust survivors.

Rivka Ben-Daniel, Director of Judaic Studies, explained the connection of the school to the club. "The 1939 Club is connected to our school because of the name 'Ilan Ramon,'" she said.

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The mother of Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut killed in the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle mission, was a Holocaust survivor and a member of the 1939 Club.  

"When his mother passed away, the club kept in touch with Ilan Ramon,” said Ben-Daniel. “When his space shuttle exploded, there was no connection any more because he passed away …[Then] when [the club] heard that we named our school after [the astronaut], they wanted to know us more and they wanted to be connected to us."

Consequently, a unique friendship was formed in honor of the Ramon family. "He took a drawing of a small Torah from a child who celebrated his Bar Mitzvah during the Holocaust into space with him. This learning about Torah connects us, too," said Ben-Daniel.

Young and old alike sang, danced and shared personal stories with the upper grade students. 

Idele Stapholtz spoke of her experience of surviving Kristallnacht, ‘Night of the Broken Glass,’ to a group of fourth and fifth graders. Stapholtz, who was 11 years old, was living at a boarding school in Germany at the time.  

"Suddenly the room went totally dark and glass shattered with a thunderous sound,” she told the children. “[My friend] and I grabbed each other and ran as fast as we could," She explained that they survived that night by hiding in a cupboard.  

After the Nazi's left, she was sent to Belgium where she found “safe harbor,” she said. She lived with and was protected by a Christian family."Tante Germette and Tante Marie, my two special aunties," she said.

In 1953, Rabbi Shulwies established the "Righteous Among Nations," gentiles and others who risked their own lives to save Jews during the war. Stapholtz was proud to list Tante Germette and Tante Marie among the more than 10,000 "riteous" whose names appear in plaques in Jerusalem at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial.

Paula Lubovics had a different tale to tell. At age seven, she survived the earlier part of the war by hiding in the ghetto. By day she would hide with her family in an attic. At night they would hide in a large hole that her older brother had dug in the ground. When she was nine, she hid in a brick-making factory, eventually becoming a worker.  

Ultimately, the Nazi's caught up with her and she was sent to Auschwitz. She managed to evade Joseph Megele's selection sessions by hiding behind those who were bigger than her.  

"I became invisible," she said. Lubovics was 12 when she was finally liberated by the Red Army. She lived in a displacement camp for six years and was ultimately reunited with her mother. Her brothers also survived the war.

"The third, fourth and fifth graders learn a little bit about the Holocaust today,” said Ben-Daniel. “They know that they are survivors.”

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