SKA marks Yom Hashoah

As the siren rang last Thursday, faculty members and students of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls stood for a moment of silence, reflecting on those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. 

The Yom Hashoah program commenced with heartfelt words from Mrs. Helen Spirn, head of school and a child of survivors. In a poignant segment of the program, Mrs. Spirn, Mrs. Tzipora Antman, Mrs. Tamar Bindiger and Mrs. Beate Menchel, whose parents also went through the war, together with the program’s survivor speakers, lit yahrtzeit candles in memory of their loved ones who were killed.   

In an effort to raise awareness of the normalcy of Jewish life in Europe before the war, the students watched a video produced by SKA Media Coordinator Jordana Bienenfeld. Director of Religious Guidance Mrs. Elisheva Kaminetsky explained that the film, with its emphasis on simchot and everyday life, showed that the Jews of Europe were like the Jews of today.

Introducing the program’s speakers, she stressed how they now had children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, some of whom are graduates and incoming students at SKA, and how important it is for us to remember the past while looking to the future.  

 After hearing the SKA choir sing with deep emotion, three ninth graders read passages from the student-produced Holocaust Journal, “Lives Lost … Legacies Living On,” with original stories, poems and artwork dedicated to the victims of the Shoah, whose legacy lives on for many in their granddaughters enrolled in the school. The students were then privileged to hear from Mrs. Yolanda Katz, Mrs. Phyllis Margolis, Mr. Leon Gersten and Mr. and Mrs. Wohlberg, who shared their powerful stories, recounting their lives before, during and after the war.

A week later, on Wednesday, April 22, the siren were to ring again at SKA as the school observed Yom HaZikaron and prepared to celebrate Yom Haazmaut the next day.