Pesach Message 2011

 

 

Dear friends,

 

This is just a short note to wish you all Chag Sameach for Pesach.  May you enjoy meaningful seders with friends and family, as we all celebrate the festival of freedom.  Within a few weeks, the nation and the community will also observe the Days of Remembrance of the Holocaust, as designated this year by the US Congress for May 1 though 8, 2011.

 

There are two important dates to keep open in Charleston.  The first is for Yom HaShoah, to be observed with the memorial gathering and march in downtown Charleston on Sunday May 1st, 2011.  The second is the evening of Tuesday, May 3rd, when Dora Love will be speaking at the JCC.  You may already have seen notices for these events in community emails and the Voice.  I want to share a bit more about Dora Love, and to encourage you all to attend both of these very important events.

 

 

      

 

Dora Love is a retired teacher, who now lives in Colchester in the UK.  Her family and ours have been friends from the time she and her late husband, Frank, moved to South Africa a few years after World War II.  Dora will be in the Charleston area with my mother, Eva Spangenthal, to attend Dora's grandson's wedding.  Dora is a survivor of the Holocaust, and specifically of the Stutthoff concentration camp.  Her story includes the unspeakable horrors of forced evacuations, imprisonment in a ghetto and later at Stutthoff, the loss of loved ones, slave labor and being shipped in boats eastward across the Baltic Sea without food or water, as the Russian armies closed in on the Nazis in the final days of the war.

 

After liberation and her recovery from starvation and TB, Dora became a translator for the British, assisting them with war-crime investigations, and she later worked for the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and then the American Joint Distribution Committee.  Of all the remarkable things Dora did in this period, she feels most proud of her work rescuing Jewish children who had survived the war, many of whom had been in hiding with gentile families.  She assisted tracing these children and housing them in a home in Blankenese, near Hamburg, in Germany.  The home was opened in early 1946 and was staffed by soldiers of the Jewish Brigades and people assigned by the AJDC, which also provided the children food, medication and books.  Nearly 200 children passed through this home, on their way to being resettled and reunited with family, wherever they could be found.

 

Dora's mission to this day is to bear witness to her experiences, for the betterment of people from all communities and walks of life.  She has worked closely in recent years with the history department at the University of Colchester, where she helped establish a program for History Majors, all of whom must take at least two courses in Holocaust Studies. In recognition for her courageous efforts, her advocacy and example, Dora was honored with an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex in 2009.

 

As you may know, in January this year, I began serving on the board of the Jewish Community Alliance of Charleston, which jointly serves the JCC and the Charleston Jewish Federation.  From this brief time on the board, I am happy to report that there are many dedicated individuals working hard to make a difference in our community.  These two events are excellent examples of the fruits of their efforts.  Please make every effort to stand with us on May 1st, and come and meet Dora Love, and hear her speak on May 3rd.

 

For further information, contact Judi Corsaro and Sandra Brett through the JCC.

 

Best wishes from Arlene and I and our family to you and yours,

 

 

 

Peter Rosenthal

    

 

 

Pesach message 2011

 

 

 

 

Dear friends,

 

This is just a short note to wish you all Chag Sameach for Pesach.  May you enjoy meaningful seders with friends and family, as we all celebrate the festival of freedom.  Within a few weeks, the nation and the community will also observe the Days of Remembrance of the Holocaust, as designated this year by the US Congress for May 1 though 8, 2011.

 

There are two important dates to keep open in Charleston.  The first is for Yom HaShoah, to be observed with the memorial gathering and march in downtown Charleston on Sunday May 1st, 2011.  The second is the evening of Tuesday, May 3rd, when Dora Love will be speaking at the JCC.  You may already have seen notices for these events in community emails and the Voice.  I want to share a bit more about Dora Love, and to encourage you all to attend both of these very important events.

 

 

      

 

Dora Love is a retired teacher, who now lives in Colchester in the UK.  Her family and ours have been friends from the time she and her late husband, Frank, moved to South Africa a few years after World War II.  Dora will be in the Charleston area with my mother, Eva Spangenthal, to attend Dora's grandson's wedding.  Dora is a survivor of the Holocaust, and specifically of the Stutthoff concentration camp.  Her story includes the unspeakable horrors of forced evacuations, imprisonment in a ghetto and later at Stutthoff, the loss of loved ones, slave labor and being shipped in boats eastward across the Baltic Sea without food or water, as the Russian armies closed in on the Nazis in the final days of the war.

 

After liberation and her recovery from starvation and TB, Dora became a translator for the British, assisting them with war-crime investigations, and she later worked for the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and then the American Joint Distribution Committee.  Of all the remarkable things Dora did in this period, she feels most proud of her work rescuing Jewish children who had survived the war, many of whom had been in hiding with gentile families.  She assisted tracing these children and housing them in a home in Blankenese, near Hamburg, in Germany.  The home was opened in early 1946 and was staffed by soldiers of the Jewish Brigades and people assigned by the AJDC, which also provided the children food, medication and books.  Nearly 200 children passed through this home, on their way to being resettled and reunited with family, wherever they could be found.

 

Dora's mission to this day is to bear witness to her experiences, for the betterment of people from all communities and walks of life.  She has worked closely in recent years with the history department at the University of Colchester, where she helped establish a program for History Majors, all of whom must take at least two courses in Holocaust Studies. In recognition for her courageous efforts, her advocacy and example, Dora was honored with an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex in 2009.

 

As you may know, in January this year, I began serving on the board of the Jewish Community Alliance of Charleston, which jointly serves the JCC and the Charleston Jewish Federation.  From this brief time on the board, I am happy to report that there are many dedicated individuals working hard to make a difference in our community.  These two events are excellent examples of the fruits of their efforts.  Please make every effort to stand with us on May 1st, and come and meet Dora Love, and hear her speak on May 3rd.

 

For further information, contact Judi Corsaro and Sandra Brett through the JCC.

 

Best wishes from Arlene and I and our family to you and yours,

 

 

 

Peter Rosenthal

 

(peterosenthal@aol.com)