Overload, part 4: Holocaust Awareness Week
so, after a nice chicken salad roll that my mum made for me, i'm back yet again to continue this epic tale that has been my last few months. lol
on May 1st was Tammy's birthday. the package i sent her arrived right on the day, which was really great timeing. the day after that, when i got home from uni, we hired the same movie and watched it together while talking on the phone. it was realy fun. luckily, my parents went away for two days, so i had the place to myself :)
because Pesach came late this year on the Jewish calendar, it didn't leave us at AUJS much time to organise our next event, Holocaust Awareness Week (HAW). this is one of the biggest events on the AUJS calendar, nation-wide. HAW is a week-long campaign, which falls in the week that Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Rememberance Day) is in, to educate the general public on campus about the horrors of the Holocaust and to remember the innocent victims that perished under the Nazi's brutal regime - the 6 million Jews and 5 million other victims, which included Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals and political opponents. the week culminates in a commemoration service.
on the Monday 2nd May, we set up our information area at the uni. in the main walkway is a semi-circular platform about a foot off the rest of the walkway, with a wall behind it. on the wall we had this huge poster of the entrance to the Auschwitz, with the train track leading up to it. we made our own little train tracks from some wood and put them on the platform leading up to the poster. on the tracks we had heaps of stones and on the rim of the platform, we had six candles, representing the six million Jews that were murdered. we had a couple of little tables with some in-depth fact sheets about the Holocaust, and we were giving out fliers to passers by who were interested. this was way better than last year because we were more central, and we caught people's attention better. lots of people, mostly non-Jews, students and lecturers, stopped to look, ask questions and read the fact sheets. Yehuda was also there, and putting n tefilin with any Jewish guys who wanted to. we did the same on the Wednesday but in a differnt spot, but still got a good response.
On the Thursday 5th, we had our commemoration service. i was able to get another one of my Rabbi friends to come, because Yehuda was going to a different university on that day. Andrew is the coordinator of Aish HaTorah in Melbourne and was very pleased to come along. because we had little time to organise and advertise it, we didn't get such a huge turnout, only about 12 people (compared to about 25 last year), we still had a very moving service. while we were setting up the room and some people were walking in, i played some music that i put onto CD, most of songs from the Schindler's List soundtrack. then we welcomed everyone and played the Australian National Anthem. then the AUJS president and i said a few paragraphs about the importance of Yom Hashoah and why we commemorate it. then we lit the 6 candles for the 6 million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. each candle lit was in memory of a particular group of people:
- The first candle is lit in memory of the helpless Jewish infants, children and teenagers who had to witness the atrocity before them, whose lives were cut so short, long before their time.
- The second candle is lit in memory of the Jewish men and women who lost their right to be treated as humans, from being stripped of their citizenship to being sent to their deaths, all because they had Jewish origins.
- The third candle is lit in memory of the Jewish resistance - both spiritually and physically. It is a reminder of the Rabbis that continued their teachings despite the threat of death. It is a reminder of the Jewish partisans and youth groups who fought so valiantly, undermanned and with little arsenal. this was lit by a Rabbi which i invited to attend, a friend of mine who is the coordinator of Aish in Melbourne.
- The fourth candle is lit in memory of other groups who were also horrifically persecuted by the Nazis - homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and political prisoners. this was lit by a girl who is a representative from the queer socited at uni, who i invited.
-The fifth candle is lit in memory of the righteous gentiles among the nations, who risked their own lives to protect Jewish lives by taking them into hiding, giving them fake identities, and fighting the Nazi regime in their own way.
-The sixth candle is lit in memory of the survivors who lived through the Shoah and still live today, to tell the world the truth about what happened and to try to ensure that the Holocaust will never happen again.
the rest of the candles were lit by other Jewish students from AUJS.
then the Rabbi said El Maleu Rachamom, along with a very fitting passage from the Mishnah, about how the real heros in the world are the ones that no one knows about, all those that perished perished in the Holocaust were real heros in their own right. because we didn't have a minyan, we didnt say kaddish. after this, we played Eli Eli. then we introduced our guest speaker, a volunteer from the Holocaust Centre in Melbourne and a Holocaust survivor. She spoke about her experiences in Warsaw and how lucky she was that she was looked after by some Righteous Gentiles unitl the end of the war. she lived in Warsaw throught the war, outside the ghetto, and told us about the Uprising in April 1943. After that, we played the Partisan's Song (Zog nit keyn mol), which was the song of the resistance in Warsaw.
After that, we concluded with Hatikva, thr Israeli National Anthem. at the end, we got a lot of praise from those that we invited and they were very glad that they attended.
on that night AUJS Victoria and the Hagshama department of the World Zionist Organisation organised a Yom Hashoah seder. The idea behind it is that there iexists a concept that one day the Jewish people will remember the Holocaust in a similar way that we remember the exodus from Egypt - through a ritualised service, with texts like that contained in the Pesach Haggadah, and with the aid of tangible symbols, like those that adorn the Seder plate, and that allow participants to attempt to connect with the experiences of those who lived through the events that we remember.
this year was the second time it was done and we hope that the Holocaust Seder will become an annual AUJS tradition. The Holocaust Seder focused on different aspects of the Holocaust experience, for example the move to the Ghettos, the separation of families at the camps, resistance, righteous gentiles and those who remained in hiding. For each aspect we found a story or a quote, and also a physical way of remembering it, just as salt water is used to remember the tears and hardship of the Jewish slaves in Egypt at the Pesach Seder. We finished the Seder on a hopeful note, by looking at liberation, survival, the State of Israel and other thriving Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Then we had dinner, with a lot of discussion about what was said during the evening.
Still to come: Yom Haaztmaut, some exciting news and more.
on May 1st was Tammy's birthday. the package i sent her arrived right on the day, which was really great timeing. the day after that, when i got home from uni, we hired the same movie and watched it together while talking on the phone. it was realy fun. luckily, my parents went away for two days, so i had the place to myself :)
because Pesach came late this year on the Jewish calendar, it didn't leave us at AUJS much time to organise our next event, Holocaust Awareness Week (HAW). this is one of the biggest events on the AUJS calendar, nation-wide. HAW is a week-long campaign, which falls in the week that Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Rememberance Day) is in, to educate the general public on campus about the horrors of the Holocaust and to remember the innocent victims that perished under the Nazi's brutal regime - the 6 million Jews and 5 million other victims, which included Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals and political opponents. the week culminates in a commemoration service.
on the Monday 2nd May, we set up our information area at the uni. in the main walkway is a semi-circular platform about a foot off the rest of the walkway, with a wall behind it. on the wall we had this huge poster of the entrance to the Auschwitz, with the train track leading up to it. we made our own little train tracks from some wood and put them on the platform leading up to the poster. on the tracks we had heaps of stones and on the rim of the platform, we had six candles, representing the six million Jews that were murdered. we had a couple of little tables with some in-depth fact sheets about the Holocaust, and we were giving out fliers to passers by who were interested. this was way better than last year because we were more central, and we caught people's attention better. lots of people, mostly non-Jews, students and lecturers, stopped to look, ask questions and read the fact sheets. Yehuda was also there, and putting n tefilin with any Jewish guys who wanted to. we did the same on the Wednesday but in a differnt spot, but still got a good response.
On the Thursday 5th, we had our commemoration service. i was able to get another one of my Rabbi friends to come, because Yehuda was going to a different university on that day. Andrew is the coordinator of Aish HaTorah in Melbourne and was very pleased to come along. because we had little time to organise and advertise it, we didn't get such a huge turnout, only about 12 people (compared to about 25 last year), we still had a very moving service. while we were setting up the room and some people were walking in, i played some music that i put onto CD, most of songs from the Schindler's List soundtrack. then we welcomed everyone and played the Australian National Anthem. then the AUJS president and i said a few paragraphs about the importance of Yom Hashoah and why we commemorate it. then we lit the 6 candles for the 6 million Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. each candle lit was in memory of a particular group of people:
- The first candle is lit in memory of the helpless Jewish infants, children and teenagers who had to witness the atrocity before them, whose lives were cut so short, long before their time.
- The second candle is lit in memory of the Jewish men and women who lost their right to be treated as humans, from being stripped of their citizenship to being sent to their deaths, all because they had Jewish origins.
- The third candle is lit in memory of the Jewish resistance - both spiritually and physically. It is a reminder of the Rabbis that continued their teachings despite the threat of death. It is a reminder of the Jewish partisans and youth groups who fought so valiantly, undermanned and with little arsenal. this was lit by a Rabbi which i invited to attend, a friend of mine who is the coordinator of Aish in Melbourne.
- The fourth candle is lit in memory of other groups who were also horrifically persecuted by the Nazis - homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and political prisoners. this was lit by a girl who is a representative from the queer socited at uni, who i invited.
-The fifth candle is lit in memory of the righteous gentiles among the nations, who risked their own lives to protect Jewish lives by taking them into hiding, giving them fake identities, and fighting the Nazi regime in their own way.
-The sixth candle is lit in memory of the survivors who lived through the Shoah and still live today, to tell the world the truth about what happened and to try to ensure that the Holocaust will never happen again.
the rest of the candles were lit by other Jewish students from AUJS.
then the Rabbi said El Maleu Rachamom, along with a very fitting passage from the Mishnah, about how the real heros in the world are the ones that no one knows about, all those that perished perished in the Holocaust were real heros in their own right. because we didn't have a minyan, we didnt say kaddish. after this, we played Eli Eli. then we introduced our guest speaker, a volunteer from the Holocaust Centre in Melbourne and a Holocaust survivor. She spoke about her experiences in Warsaw and how lucky she was that she was looked after by some Righteous Gentiles unitl the end of the war. she lived in Warsaw throught the war, outside the ghetto, and told us about the Uprising in April 1943. After that, we played the Partisan's Song (Zog nit keyn mol), which was the song of the resistance in Warsaw.
After that, we concluded with Hatikva, thr Israeli National Anthem. at the end, we got a lot of praise from those that we invited and they were very glad that they attended.
on that night AUJS Victoria and the Hagshama department of the World Zionist Organisation organised a Yom Hashoah seder. The idea behind it is that there iexists a concept that one day the Jewish people will remember the Holocaust in a similar way that we remember the exodus from Egypt - through a ritualised service, with texts like that contained in the Pesach Haggadah, and with the aid of tangible symbols, like those that adorn the Seder plate, and that allow participants to attempt to connect with the experiences of those who lived through the events that we remember.
this year was the second time it was done and we hope that the Holocaust Seder will become an annual AUJS tradition. The Holocaust Seder focused on different aspects of the Holocaust experience, for example the move to the Ghettos, the separation of families at the camps, resistance, righteous gentiles and those who remained in hiding. For each aspect we found a story or a quote, and also a physical way of remembering it, just as salt water is used to remember the tears and hardship of the Jewish slaves in Egypt at the Pesach Seder. We finished the Seder on a hopeful note, by looking at liberation, survival, the State of Israel and other thriving Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Then we had dinner, with a lot of discussion about what was said during the evening.
Still to come: Yom Haaztmaut, some exciting news and more.