New Orleans Jewish community solemnly gathers at WW2 Museum for Yom Hashoah
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
With “An Evening of Reflection” at the National World War II Museum on Tuesday evening, April 14, the Jewish community and museum members solemnly gathered in the Boeing Freedom Pavilion to commemorate Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remebrance Day.
New Orleans Holocaust survivor Anne Skorecki Levy, left, accompanied by her grandson Taylor Levy, leads the Proecession of the Holocaust Survivors and Family Members. (Photo by Alan Smason)
Sponsored jointly by the New Orleans Jewish Community Holocaust Memorial Committee and the museum, the event drew approximately 500 people. The first portion of the evening consisted of memorial candlelighting, prayers, videos and several traditional prayers and songs intended to honor the memory of the Holocaust survivors who made New Orleans their home.
Anne Skorecki Levy, the very last of the Holocaust survivors to arrive in New Orleans after World War II, led the Procession of the Holocaust Survivors and Family Members that began the spiritual proram. She was accompanied by her daughter Robin Levy Garon and her grandson Taylor Levy and placed a small memorial candle on a table for her family members who are now deceased.
Levy became the last of the New Orleans Holocaust survivors last year with the passing of her younger sister, Lila Millen.
Congegation Beth Israel Rabbi Shlomo Stauber, the grandson and son of Holocaust survivors, leads the invocation for “A Night of Reflection.” (Photo by Alan Smason)
Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Shlomo Stauber, the grandchild and son of Holocaust surivors, led the opening invocation, followed by committee chairs Ruth Rosenblat Loeffelholz and Rosyln Fuksman Morris, who welcomed the attendees and acknowledged many of the area’s invited Holocaust educators in the audience. The educators were encouraged to stand and were recognized with a round of applause from the audience.
Referring to the museum as a place dedicated to memory, the rabbi noted the numerous times the Jewish people are admonished in the Torah to zachor (remember).
“Not as a passive act, but as a living and positive obligation,” he said. “To remember is to carry. To remember is to testify. To remember is to pass it on and to ensure that the darkness is neither forgotten nor repeated.”
Luke Prest, accompanied by violinist Gabrielle Fischler and pianist Jérémie Henan, sang “Eli Eli,” a poem written by Israeli heroine Hannah Senesh that was set to music in 1945. The song glorifies the natural world and the eternal nature of the human heart. Senesh was a poet and a Jewish Palestinian paratrooper who volunteered to land behind Nazi lines on a mission to free other Jews. She was captured and executed by the Nazis in 1944.
Luke Prest sings “Eli, Eli” a poem written by Israeli heroine Hannah Senesh. (Photo by Alan Smason)
Accompanied by members of her extended family, Anne Levy lit the first candle of a six-tiered wooden menorah constructed by Holocaust survivor Isak Borenstein, z”l, in memory of the six milion Jews estimated to have been lost to the Shoah. Also lighting that first candle was Rose Lefkowitz-Rosenkrantz, a fellow Holocaust survivor who was part of a panel discussion later in the evening on a play based on the lives and struggles of her parents during the Holocaust and after the war.
The work titled “Only Miracles” was written by Lefkowitz-Rosenkrantz’s nephew by marriage, Dodd Loomis. Loomis’ wife, Alix Paige Loomis also lit the fiManage Tagsrst candle with her daughter.
Also lighting candles were Pam, Caren and Michelle Rubin and Evan Zorman. Rubin introduced a video of her father, Mark Rubin, z”l, a Holocaust survivor whose oral history was recorded on video by members of the National World War II Museum staff. The program was made possible in part through the Mark Rubin Family Endowment for Holocaust Education.
Anne Levy, left, and Rose Lefkowitz-Rosenkrantz (blocked) with Alix Paige Loomis and her daughter. (Photo by Alan Smason
Sons of Holocaust survivors Leopold Sher and Lee Kirzner chanted the El Maleh Rachamin and Kaddish memorial prayers. Kirzner recited the names of the New Orleans Holocaust survivors.
Later, a youth choir, New Voices New Orleans, was featured singing with accompaniment by Fischler and Henam with “L’Dor V’Dor” and with Cantors Kevin Marolius (Touro Synagogue) and Rebecca Garfein (Temple Sinai).
Following a short intermission, Jason Dawsey, Ph.D., mediated a panel discussion regarding “Only Miracles.” Other panel members included playwright Dodd Loomis and Lefkowitz-Rosenkrantz, his aunt by marriage.
