Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1994-06-30

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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 72
NUMBER 26
.JUNE 30,1994
21 TAMMUZ 5754
Uhio   Hist,. Society
1982. Ve.lrna   five.
Columbus, Ohio
Beth Tikvah installs officers
 page 2
Columbus ZOA disappointed
by Archbishop Tutu's silence
. page 2
AIPAC to honor Gordon Zacks
at annual dinner on July 20
page 4
Summer children's program
introduced at Beth Jacob
 page, 6
ABOUT THE COVER
Jessica Eisenberg, Jessie Hershfield, Dana
Masser and Daniel Katz (I. to r.) are pictured in
Israel. The teens participated in the "March of the
Living."
EARLY DEADLINE
Deadline for the July 7
OJC is noon, Thursday,
June 30. The OJC office
will be closed on Monday,
July -*/, in observance of
Independence Day,
In The Chronicle
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COMMUNITY FEATURE
Local youths join "March of the Living
99
By Ina Horwltz-Whitmore
Last April, some 800 Israeli
and over 5200 Diaspora high
school students commemorated the darkest and the brightest time in Jewish history, as
they first converged on Auschwitz in Poland to remember
the six million Jews who died
in the Holocaust, then traveled to Israel to celebrate Independence Day.
Among the participants were
four local Jewish teenagers:
Bexley High School juniors,
Jessica Eisenberg, Dana
Masser and Jessie Hershfield,
and Columbus Torah Academy junior, Daniel Katz.
The "March ofthe Living,"
which took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, began at Auschwitz and ended at
Birkenau. While it took the
youths less than a couple
hours to complete the approximately 1.8 mile journey, it became not just an "unforgettable" experience but one that
will most likely affect the rest
of their lives, they said.
Participants were tracing
the first steps ofthe "march of
death" — the forced march in
Jan., 1945 toward Germany of
60,000 Jews whom the Germans had no time to kill. This
year's pilgrimage was the fourth
since the event began in 1988.
"1 raveling with the teenage delegation were Holocaust survivors.
"It was an emotional and
tense time for all four of us,"
said Hershfield. "It was hard
for me, and I think it was hard
for everyone. You were up one
moment and down the next -r~
from being very happy to being very depressed." , ,',, ,,
The students applied for the
trip by submitting essays expressing why they wanted to
go on the march. Katz, whose
piece was judged from among
other entries written by Torah
Academy students, received a
full scholarship from the Abe.
A. Wolman Memorial Fund of
the Columbus Jewish Foundation. One-third of the annual
investment income of the
fund is dispersed to the CTA
for a deserving student to go to
, Israel or some other destination which would provide a
meaningful Jewish experience.
Coordinating the Columbus
program was the Teen Department of the teo Yassenoff
Jewish Community Center,
with Hallie Friedman serving
as liaison; the Israel Department ofthe Columbus Jewish
Federation, and the Columbus
Commission on Jewish Education. ■'-.'"■
The students all took a five
session mini-course to prepare
them for the trip. Subjects
covered included anti-Semitism, Israel, historical Holocaust background and revisionism. They watched a video
about Bradley Smith, a revisionist who targets college
campuses by placing ads in
college newspapers denying
the Holocaust.
"I think a lot of kids'anger
has been sparked by Holo-
: caust denial" said Hershfield.
"You see it all the time, notably on talk shows."
She believed the trip has
given her a purpose. "Since
someday there will be no Holocaust survivors left alive,
and with the controversy over
keeping the death camps intact, I wanted to see; it all for
myself, so I will be able to
teach others," she saidC
Feeling very lucky to have
had the opportunity, she now
feels she has a real image of
how things were, not just a
visual image.
Like Hershfield, Masser also
wants to teach in a classroom
setting about the Holocaust.
"I've always had a huge interest in the Holocaust, and since
we're the next generation, it is
our responsibility to pass it
down to others," she said.
Hershfield added, "I feel the
rest of my life will center
around the experience and my
decisions will be affected by it.
It's important that we speak to
others about it, whether or not
it is in the classroom."
All four students have since
given speeches at their schools
as well as talks to Federation
members.
The youths spoke about
their reactions on the march
itself. They said they walked
in alphabetical order and in
silence. Polish residents from
the countryside came out to
look at them.
"I didn't know if they were
there to support us or not,"
said Hershfield.
As they walked by the same
railroad tracks where cattle
cars had once transported
Jews to the death camps, a,
train passed them. "It was
very eerie," said Masser.
While they all mourned for
the millions who did not survive, at the same time, they
felt glad to be alive. "I thinkl
felt proud that we were all together as survivors," noted
Katz.
In addition to seeing history
firsthand, Katz noted the trip ^
was also a link with his grandparents' family, many of whom
died in the Holocaust.
"Now that I am back, I read
a lot about the Holocaust," he
said. "I am much more aware
of what happened."
The teens also visited the
Warsaw Ghetto and the Krakow Ghetto. They saw the labor camp where the commandant from Schindler's List had
lived. His house is now torn
down, and the site has become
a national park.
They particularly recalled
the death camp of Majdanek
which has been left standing as
it had been during the war.
The crematorium and gas
chamber remained in operating condition and could be reactivated in 24 hours, noted
Katz, who also vividly recollected touching the shoes of
the victims.
"A big city surrounded that
camp, and its residents knew
about it but didn't do a thing,"
Kafz said.
Masser added, "I thought
what I would have done and
how I would have felt had it
been me as a victim. It could
have been my shoes and hair.
In the gas chamber, 1 even pictured how it would have been
with the doors locked."
The teens were surrounded
in Poland by Israeli and Polish
security guards. They were
told not to mix, with the Polish
people because of the risk to
their safety.
While the Columbus students did not feel they have
ever experienced blatant anti-
Semitism in the United States,
and while they agreed they did
not come to Poland with nega-
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