Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in the United States Army. In late 1944, Edmonds was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and held at a German POW camp. In January 1945, the Nazis ordered all Jewish-American POWs to step forward. Edmonds, the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp, ordered all 1,000 US soldiers to step forward, regardless of their religion.   A German commander demanded that Edmonds identify the Jewish soldiers. Edmonds replied, "We are all Jews here." The commander threatened to shoot him if he did not comply. Edmonds refused, saying, "If you shoot, you'll have to shoot us all." The commander backed down.   Edmonds' actions are credited with saving the lives of 200 Jewish soldiers. In 2015, he was posthumously named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and was the first American soldier to receive the honor.   Edmonds' story is a reminder of the courage and compassion of those who stood up to the Nazis during World War II. He is a true hero, and his legacy will never be forgotten.

This is an appreciation post for Daniel Gold, inventor of Israel’s life-saving Iron Dome. Thank you!!

On 9/11 my grandmother walked from Manhattan to Williamsburg miraculously to safety. She was 78 years old. When she was 19 years old, she walked the Death March from Germany to Prague, miraculously to life. She said taking another step in the Death March felt like lifting the whole world on her knee. She also said she will never stop walking to her freedom. She has walked many paths in her life. She walked through death camps and death marches and over bridges away from a terror attack. But she also walked to a job she loved, my mother down the aisle and her great grandchildren in their strollers. She wanted you to know to keep walking too. Even when it sometimes feels you have to lift your whole world on your knee. Source: @/theredheadofauschwitz

Happy 98th birthday to Holocaust survivor Julia Wallach! Julia was born on June 14, 1925, in Paris, France. On that same day in 1940, Nazi troops entered and occupied the city of Paris. During the war, Julia hid in an apartment with her father until they were arrested in April 1943. They were sent to the Drancy internment camp before being deported by cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkenau. On January 18, 1945, Julia was forced on a death march to Ravensbrück and Malchow in the freezing cold and heavy snow. Starving and left for dead, she was liberated by American troops in late April. Julia still lives in Paris and together with her granddaughter Frankie, she continues to share her story with the world. Pictured here are Julia and Frankie on the beach in Israel. Joyeux anniversaire! #MazalTov Contributor: @Jggoltz

Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara and his wife Yukiko spent 18 - 20 hours a day writing and signing transit visas for over 6,000 Jews from July 31 to August 28, 1940. When the time came for them to depart, Sugihara said, "Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best." Sugihara and his wife are responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Jews, with an estimated 100,000+ descendants. On October 4, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Chiune Sugihara as Righteous Among the Nations.

This is an appreciation post for Daniel Gold, the inventor of Israel’s life-saving Iron Dome. Thank you!!

This is a photo of the Kutz family before October 7. They were found huddled together in their home’s bomb shelter. None of them survived. We will never forget.

A Buchenwald survivor lays a rose to honor the 56,000 prisoners who were never able to leave the walls of this concentration camp. Never forget. Never again. Video: @walkamongheroes

Erich Schwam, died at 90 years old. In his Will, he left $2M+ to the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in thanks to the town for hiding and saving his family during WWII. Schwam arrived to the village with his parents in 1943. The family was saved by local residents who hid Jews in a school until after the war. Schwam has requested the town use the money for education and scholarships for the local children. May his memory be a blessing.

“This is my father, Marc Mordechai Peretz z”l. He was murdered trying to save me from the massacre at the Nova festival. When the rockets started, he got in the car and drove toward me alone. He ran over two terrorists, broke through police checkpoints, and kept going until He was killed on Route 232. Dad, thank you for trying to save me. Thank you for 20 wonderful years, for your endless love, and for everything you gave us. I love you and will miss you forever.” —Maya Marc was 51 years old. May his memory be a blessing. Source: @IsraelinNewYork

A note from Mark Twain about the Jewish people: “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” – Mark Twain

This week in Israel, Yarden Bibas held a newly dedicated Torah with an orange cover, honoring the memory of his late wife, Shiri, and sons, Ariel and Kfir. 🧡 May their memories be a blessing.

80 years ago, April 1945. The moment Jewish prisoners learned that their train was no longer headed for a concentration camp; instead, they had finally been liberated.

My mother, Mildred Kirschenbaum, was born August 25, 1923 in Brooklyn, NY. Her parents were immigrants from Poland and Lithuania. She married my father when she was 18 years old and right after he was shipped to the South Pacific and stationed there during WWII. When he returned home they began their family. She has three children. Unfortunately, she lost her eldest son in 2019. She has 7 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. She owned a travel agency in New York for 30 years and has traveled the world. She is a card shark! She plays bridge, canasta, pam and mahjong. And she is a whiz at managing finances. She never misses a Happy Hour and still drives, cooks and handles all her affairs. Did I mention she is a fashionista, a social media influencer and the star of the award winning documentary Look At Us Now, Mother! And this Friday she will be celebrating her 100th birthday! Source: @glkirschenbaum

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908. Pictured here are Holocaust survivors saved by Schindler along with individuals from the "Schindler's List" movie, standing next to his grave in Jerusalem. Oskar Schindler was responsible for saving the lives of 1,200 Jews and in 1993 he was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Today, there are 8,000+ living descendants of the Jews saved by Oskar Schindler. Photo: @yadvashem

Condolences: Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer passed away today at the age of 103. Margot was born in Berlin on November 5, 1921. Her entire family was murdered during the Holocaust, leaving her as the only survivor. One of the last things Margot’s mother said to her was, “Try to make your life.” She married a fellow survivor, Adolf Friedländer, who she met in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, though they had known each other from Berlin. The couple moved to New York in 1946 and were together until Adolf’s passing in 1997. After his death, Margot began sharing her story publicly and returned to Berlin in 2010. She devoted her life to Holocaust education, focusing on speaking to younger generations in schools about her experiences to ensure that future generations learn from the past. You may remember last summer when, at 102, Friedländer was featured on the July/August cover of Vogue Germany. She said to Vogue, “I am grateful. Grateful that I made it. For being able to fulfill my mother’s wish—that I have made my life.” May her memory be a blessing.

Anne Frank was born 94 years ago on June 12, 1929. Eighty years ago, she received a blank diary for her 13th birthday.

During WWII, Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in the United States Army. In late 1944, Edmonds was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and held at a German POW camp. In January 1945, the Nazis ordered all Jewish-American POWs to step forward. Edmonds, the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp, ordered all 1,000 US soldiers to step forward, regardless of their religion. A German commander ordered Edmonds to identify the Jewish soldiers. Edmonds replied, “We are all Jews.” The commander said that they cannot all be Jews and threatened to shoot him if he did not comply. Edmonds refused, saying, “If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us.” The commander backed down. Edmonds’ actions are credited with saving the lives of more than 200 Jewish soldiers. In 2015, Master Sargent Roddie Edmonds was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and was the first American soldier to receive the honor.

On August 30, 1942, pastor André Trocmé urged the congregants in his overflowing church to "Do the will of God, not of men". When the deportations began in France in summer 1942, he urged his congregation to give shelter to any Jew who should ask for it. "These people came here for help and for shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock. I do not know what a Jew is. I know only human beings." On January 5, 1971, @yadvashem recognized the Reverend André Trocmé and his wife, Magda, as Righteous among the Nations.

In this photo is Audrey Hepburn with Otto Frank, Anne’s father. Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929. The actress is best known for such films as Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but did you know that she turned down playing the role of Anne Frank? Here’s why. What many may not know about Hepburn is that as a teenager she helped the Dutch resistance in WWII. Both Hepburn and Frank were born in 1929. The two never met but Hepburn felt close to the young diarist, and lived 60 miles apart from each other. While Hepburn was not Jewish, she spent several years of the war in a cellar to use as a bomb shelter and even faced near starvation. During this time she managed to arrange illegal dance performances to support local families who were hiding Jews. After the war, Otto reached out to Hepburn asking if she would play the role of his daughter for the movie adaptation of the well-known diary. Hepburn felt unable to play the part, having had such a traumatic experience during the war, it would be too difficult. She said of Frank: “It’s a little bit as if this had happened to my sister . . . in a way she was my soul sister.” Photo: Luca Dotti

My name is Dina and I graduated from Columbia University this week. I’m a 27-year-old Jewish woman with two little boys. This year has been one of the darkest years of my life as I was exposed to a lot of antisemitism and anti-Zionist propaganda on my college campus. I have stayed strong for my family, completed my degree, and walked with this honorable stole. #AmYisraelChai #BringThemHome Source: Dina Krantz

Michel Bacos was the captain of Air France Flight 139, which was hijacked and rerouted to Entebbe on June 27, 1976. On board were 240 passengers and 12 crew members when the flight took off from Tel Aviv. The hijackers released the non-Jewish hostages and offered to free Bacos and his crew, but Bacos, who was not Jewish, refused and stayed with the Jewish passengers until they were ultimately rescued by the IDF. Bacos received the National Order of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration. Additionally, the Israeli government recognized Bacos and his crew with medals for their heroic actions in refusing to leave the Jewish passengers behind. Bacos passed away in France in 2019 at the age of 95.

“The Nazis occupied our village when I was only 12 years old. At first they didn’t realize we were Jewish. We looked like our neighbors. But then someone reported us. So our home was registered as a Jewish residence. We knew our days were numbered. Time was a ticking bomb. Then late one night a non-Jewish friend of ours showed up at our house. “Listen to me,” he told us with great urgency. “Dig a hole under your fence and crawl out two at a time. Someone will meet you at the other end and lead you to safety. Tomorrow all the Jews in town will be executed”. His name was Kazi Bitdayev. And he secretly took all 6 of us to the neighboring village of Zheguta. He hid us there for 8 months, each week coming back for us and relocating us to a new basement or attic. He protected us. He fed us. He was our angel. After the war we searched for him for decades, desperate to thank him for saving our lives. But it was no use. We couldn’t find him. In 2021, we finally located Kazi’s grandchildren. And got to thank them. A moment I waited for my whole life. Hashem has truly blessed me.” Zinayida Segal (pictured holding a photo of her rescuer Kazi) passed away last August in Rostov. She is pictured with her daughter Menucha Simcha, and granddaughter Chaya. May her memory be a blessing. Source: @rostovrabbi

Michel Bacos was the captain of Air France flight 139, which was hijacked and rerouted to Entebbe on June 27, 1976. On board were 240 passengers and 12 crew members, when the flight took off from Tel Aviv. The hijackers released the non-Jewish hostages and offered to free Bacos and his crew, but Bacos refused and stayed with the Jewish passengers until they were ultimately rescued by the IDF.   Bacos received the National Order of the Legion of Honour, France's highest decoration. Additionally, the Israeli government recognized Bacos and his crew with medals for their heroic actions in refusing to leave the Jewish passengers behind.   Bacos passed away in France in 2019 at the age of 95.   Photo: Michel Bacos reunited with his wife at Orly Airport in Paris on July 5, 1976. (AFP/Getty Images)

Did you know that Paddington Bear was inspired by young Jewish refugees from WWII? Michael Bond created the beloved character after witnessing children passing through England’s Paddington Station, each carrying a small suitcase and wearing a note around their neck with identifying information.   Following the horrors of Kristallnacht, the British government allowed entry to Jewish minors from 1938 to 1940, helping to rescue more than ten thousand children. Many were sent to live with family, friends or foster care. Parents would board their children onto the transports, saying their goodbyes without knowing if they would ever see each other again.   On October 13, 1958, Paddington Bear made his first appearance in the children’s book A Bear Called Paddington. Today, Paddington’s story has been shared in over 20 books, which have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. It’s a story that began with a bear sitting alone at London’s Paddington Station, with a small suitcase and a note tied around his neck - “Please look after this bear. Thank you.”

A very old man came in to my Starbucks. Halfway through struggling to understand his order through his thick accent, he noticed my necklace. He stopped and said "Your star is beautiful.", and I thanked him. There was a long pause before he spoke again. When he did, he said "It is beautiful, but I am having a hard time looking at it. The last time I wore one, it was mandatory." We then spoke to each other in Hebrew for a bit. But soon enough he stopped again, and looked back to my star. With one hand he held mine, and used his other hand to shakily touch the sapphires on my necklace. His lip shook, and tears rolled down his cheeks. In a shaky, heavily German-accented whisper, he said "I am so happy you are here. Your generation is here. We won." and kissed my hand. Source: Maddie Harrell

Jewish firefighter Michael Farca heroically saved a Torah from a burning building on Long Island yesterday. With more than 60 firefighters on the scene, Michael realized that part of the building belonged to the Chabad of Greenvale. As the fire tore through the building, he went straight to the basement, found the Torah ark, and saw that the Torah was still inside and unharmed. Without hesitation, he carried the Torah out of the building to safety. Photo: @COLLiveNews

Eli Stern was born in 1930 in Petrova, Romania. In 1944, his family was forced into the ghetto and then deported by cattle car to Auschwitz, where everyone but Eli’s father was sent marching towards the gas chamber. When an SS guard spotted Eli, an able-bodied young boy, he swung the hook of his cane around the boy’s neck and dragged him out of line. That was the last time Eli ever saw his mother and siblings. Two weeks later, Eli and his father were transferred to Buchenwald, but they were eventually separated when Eli was sent to the Dora subcamp, followed by Bergen-Belsen. They reunited 7 years later in an emotional reunion on the Canadian border. After the war, Eli immigrated to the US, where he met his wife Helga, also a survivor, in 1956 in NY. When Helga and Eli’s great-granddaughter Eva was born in 2021, she was given the middle name “Hope,” or “Tikva” in Hebrew. Her parents chose a name with the letter T in honor of Eli’s sister, Tova, who was just 6 years old when the Nazis took her life. Eli and Eva are pictured here together. Photo: @meljay51 Contributor: @Jggoltz

Happy 103rd Birthday to @BenFerencz, the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after WWII and the chief prosecutor for the US Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the 12 Nuremberg Trials. All of the 22 men on trial were convicted. At the time Ferencz was just 27 years old and this was his first case. Born on this day in 1920, here he is in March 2023 reminding us to "Do something you love." Let's wish Ben a Happy Birthday!

Holocaust survivor Francine Christophe was born in Paris on August 18, 1933. While attempting to flee the Nazis in 1942, Francine and her mother Marcelle were arrested and eventually deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. Marcelle kept two small pieces of chocolate for her daughter to use when she was helpless and in need of energy. But, when Hélène, a fellow inmate who was pregnant and emaciated, went into labor, the Christophe ladies gave her the chocolate for strength. Hélène gave birth to a baby girl and both survived. Decades later, Francine organized a conference on the topic of survivors and mental health. When a psychologist from Marseille got on stage, she said she had something for Francine. She placed a piece of chocolate in Francine’s hand and said, “I am the baby.” Contributor: @jggoltz Photo: Christophe family

My father was a Holocaust survivor. He was the only one of his family to survive. Growing up, for as long as I can remember, he told me about the Menorah his family had before the war. It was silver, with palm trees and lions. 🧵

80 years ago today, on June 6, 1944, a synagogue on West 23rd Street in New York City held 24-hour special services on D-Day to pray for the Allied troops as they landed on the beaches of Normandy.

“My father’s Jewish, my mother’s Jewish, I am a Jew.” Daniel Pearl’s final words 21 years ago, February 1, 2002. 🧵

“This elegant lady of 95 walked in to the seder tonight in a beautiful rich blue sweater. When I commented on how lovely it was, she was quick to tell me its story. Helena survived three concentration camps and when the last one was liberated she was flown by the Red Cross to a hospital in Sweden. She was 5'4" and weighed 52 lbs. Her roommate in the hospital, a fellow survivor, knit the sweater for her while they were there. It was 1945. She told me she has worn that sweater every Passover since then. Everyone has a story but very few have the power of that blue sweater.” Source: Gail Dubov

🇮🇱🇬🇧 Today in London, over 100,000 people are marching against antisemitism and in support of the Jewish community. Video: @JewishNewsUK

✡️ That was then, this is wow.

Today in London, thousands gathered to remember October 7 as we near the two year anniversary, standing strong with a powerful message: Am Yisrael Chai! Video: @JewishNewsUK

Abraham J. Zelmanowitz was my uncle. He worked on the 27th floor of Tower 1 in the World Trade Center and died on September 11th, 2001. He was a native New Yorker, born on December 30, 1945. On September 11th, he went to work that day alongside his friend and co-worker of 12 years, Ed Beyea. Ed was paralyzed from the neck down due to a diving accident when he was 22. When the planes hit, Abraham stayed with Ed waiting for assistance to get out of the building. It wasn’t even a thought in his mind to abandon someone in need, and he refused to leave Ed behind. He lived and died the same way, always looking out for others. President Bush referenced him just days after 9/11: “And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man, who could have saved himself, stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend.” May his memory be blessed. Source: Saul Zelmanowitz

My dad is a Holocaust survivor and last month, he celebrated his 99th birthday and 71st wedding anniversary, on the same day. Abe Lerman was born on February 23, 1924 and married Clara Lerman February 23, 1951. He was born in Radom, Poland and is now residing in Delray Beach, Florida. Growing up, he never shared or talked about his childhood in Poland, the war or any of the atrocities he lived through. He lost his parents, siblings, relatives and friends, but was able to survive. Came to NYC in 1940’s, after he escaped a Nazi work labor camp in Pionki, Poland and lived in the woods for one year before being liberated by the Russians. Just over the last few years he started to open up and we are now learning about things we never knew. Source: Stephan Lerman

Condolences: Lily Ebert   Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was born in Hungary on December 29, 1923. She was 20 years old when she and her family were deported to Auschwitz. Lily’s mother and younger brother were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Lily survived.   Lily detailed her experience in a memoir, Lily’s Promise. With over 2 million followers on TikTok, she used the platform for Holocaust education and to share her story, with the help of her great-grandson @DovForman.   Last year, Lily was awarded an MBE by King Charles at Windsor Castle. MBE stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire, an honor given for outstanding achievement or service to the community that is exceptional and has a long-term impact, serving as an example to others.   Lily leaves behind a powerful legacy. This past year, she lived to see the birth of her great-great-grandchild, marking five generations. She was 100 years old.   May her memory be a blessing. Photo: Lily with her great-great-grandchild

Michel Bacos was the captain of Air France Flight 139, which was hijacked and rerouted to Entebbe on June 27, 1976. On board were 240 passengers and 12 crew members when the flight took off from Tel Aviv. The hijackers released the non-Jewish hostages and offered to free Bacos and his crew, but Bacos, who was not Jewish, refused and stayed with the Jewish passengers until they were ultimately rescued by the IDF. Bacos received the National Order of the Legion of Honour, France's highest decoration. Additionally, the Israeli government recognized Bacos and his crew with medals for their heroic actions in refusing to leave the Jewish passengers behind. Bacos passed away in France in 2019 at the age of 95.

🎗️#AmYisraelChai at ASU graduation ceremony! Source: @tavgross

Let’s all wish a Happy 100th Birthday to this incredible human! Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was born in Hungary on December 29, 1923. She was 20 years old when she and her family were deported to Auschwitz. Lily’s mother and younger brother were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Lily survived. Today, Lily lives in London and has detailed her experience in a memoir, "Lily’s Promise." With over 2 million followers on TikTok, Lily uses the platform for Holocaust education and sharing her experience, with the help of her great-grandson @DovForman. This year, Lily was awarded her MBE by King Charles at Windsor Castle. MBE stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire, which is given for outstanding achievement or service to the community that is exceptional and has a long-term impact, serving as an example to others.

Please help me wish Holocaust survivor Rose Richman a happy 92nd birthday! This Monday, Rose will be celebrating, and her friend is trying to gather at least 92 birthday messages for the occasion. Happy Birthday, Rose! #MazalTov Photo: @therosegrows

Holocaust Remembrance Day #YomHashoah #NeverForget #NeverAgain

Reciting Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, at the top of Mount Everest. The purpose of this climb was to honor the victims of October 7 with the traditional prayer. Written on the banner are the names of the 1,200 victims. May their memories be a blessing. Source: @/minyan.everest

Let’s all wish a Happy 99th Birthday to this incredible Human. Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was born on December 29, 1923. With 1.9 million followers on TikTok, Lily uses the popular app for Holocaust education and sharing her experiences, with the help of her great-grandson Dov

SPOTTED: Today in New York City, the Celebrate Israel Parade on 5th Avenue #AmYisraelChai 🇮🇱 Photo: @LizzySavetsky @IraSavetskyMD

President George Washington visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island on August 18, 1790. Built in 1763, the Touro Synagogue is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the US. At that time, various churches, congregations, and religious institutions wrote letters to congratulate the first US president upon his election. Following his visit to the New England synagogue, Washington responded to the Newport Jewish community in a historic letter documenting his expression of religious liberty and freedom in the United States. Here is an excerpt:   "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid." - President George Washington

“These are three sisters. The eldest, Leah, my grandmother, held the hands of her two younger sisters, Esther (left) and Rivka (right) while in line to be tattooed, hence the consecutive numbers. All three have passed away since the picture was taken in 1992, but among them they have 11 children, 50 grandchildren, and 105 great grandchildren. Photography credit to my cousin Vardi Kahana.” – Anat Rosensweig

CONDOLENCES: Holocaust survivor David “Dugo” Leitner was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary in 1930. He was just 14 when the Nazis invaded his hometown and sent him and his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Dugo was assigned sewage duty and narrowly escaped the gas chamber numerous times, including on Simchat Torah when he was among 50 children removed from the crematorium to perform labor. On January 18, 1945, Dugo, along with 60,000 other Auschwitz prisoners, was forced on a Death March to Mauthausen and Gunskirchen. Exhausted, freezing, and starving, Dugo dreamt of “bilkelach,” or mini challah rolls. His mother, who did not survive, always told him that they would go live in Eretz Yisrael where “bilkelach” grew on trees. After the war, Dugo immigrated to Israel in 1949, and on his first visit to the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, he encountered a local delicacy that reminded him of the “bilkelach” - falafel balls. For him, the falafel became a symbol of his survival. So, every year on January 18th, the anniversary of the day he was forced on the Death March, Dugo would eat falafel as a way to commemorate his family and the millions of other Holocaust victims. He invited everyone to join him in this ritual and hold up a sign that says “Am Yisrael Chai.” Dugo passed away today at the age of 93, but people around the world will continue to eat falafel each year in his honor. May his memory be a blessing. Contributor: @Jggoltz

This is Adolfo Kaminsky. During WWII, he saved the lives of 14,000 French Jews. Adolfo was born on October 1, 1925 in Argentina to Russian Jewish parents who fled pogroms. In 1930, the Kaminsky family moved to France. After his mother was killed by the Nazis in 1941, Kaminsky joined the French resistance at age 17. He then worked in an underground laboratory in Paris where he spent the remainder of the war forging identity papers. “I’ll always remember our biggest request for documents. 300 children in 3 days. It wasn’t possible. I had to stay awake as long as possible. Fight against sleep. The math was simple. In one hour, I made 30 fake documents. If I slept for one hour, 30 people would die. My biggest fear was making a technical mistake, any little detail that might escape me. On every document rests the life or death of a human being. So I worked, worked, worked until I passed out. When I woke up, I kept working. We couldn’t stop." Kaminsky passed away in January 2023. May his memory be a blessing.

This past week marked the anniversary of the Vél d’Hiv Roundup. On July 16, 1942, the French police began a mass roundup of foreign Jews living in Paris and its surrounding suburbs. Over the course of two days, more than 13,000 Jews were arrested and held in the Vélodrome d’Hiver (Winter Stadium) before being shipped off to concentration camps. Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard was one of the few who managed to escape the stadium that summer. Born in Poland in 1928, Sarah was just a toddler when her parents decided to move to France to escape the rising tide of antisemitism in Poland. But in the early hours of July 16, Sarah and her mother Maria were forcibly taken from their home in Paris. They were told they’d be sent to work in Germany, but Sarah’s mother soon learned this was a lie. She stuck some money in her 14-year-old daughter’s pocket and ordered her to leave the stadium by any means possible. Sarah managed to escape, followed by her mother shortly after. The pair found refuge with friends until they were denounced by a neighbor in 1944. Sarah and Maria were again arrested and detained at Drancy before being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were later sent on a death march to Bergen-Belsen where they were liberated in April 1945. Sadly, Sarah passed away last year, but she spent her life ensuring that the world would #NeverForget. Each time Sarah told her story, she spoke not only for herself, but also the 77,000 Jews of France who did not survive to tell their own. Photo: @lesdna Contributor: @Jggoltz

Here is a picture of survival. 
This is Eli Sharabi, holding a Torah, just months after surviving 491 days in captivity. He was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, when Hamas terrorists took him hostage and brought him to Gaza. When he was finally released this past February, Eli weighed less than 100 pounds. It was only upon his return to Israel that he learned his wife, Lianne, and his daughters, Noiya (16) and Yahel (13), had been murdered on October 7. Today, Eli devotes all his time to advocating for the release of the remaining 53 hostages. “I’m here to tell the world my story, our story, and I won’t stop until everyone is back.” #BringThemAllHome🎗️🇮🇱 Photo: @eli_sharabi7

Abraham J. Zelmanowitz was my uncle. He worked on the 27th floor of Tower 1 in the World Trade Center and died on September 11th, 2001.   He was a native New Yorker, born on December 30, 1945. On September 11th, he went to work that day alongside his friend and co-worker of 12 years, Ed Beyea. Ed was paralyzed from the neck down due to a diving accident when he was 22. When the planes hit, Abraham stayed with Ed waiting for assistance to get out of the building. It wasn’t even a thought in his mind to abandon someone in need, and he refused to leave Ed behind.   He lived and died the same way, always looking out for others.   President Bush referenced him just days after 9/11: “And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man, who could have saved himself, stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend.”   May his memory be blessed. Source: Saul Zelmanowitz

Today my 100-year-old grandfather married his 102-year-old girlfriend! Bernie Littman and Marjorie Fiterman live on the same floor of a senior living facility in Philadelphia. They both had 60+ years of marriage to their first spouses and found love again at 100 years old! #MazalTov #CentennialLove Source: Sarah Sicherman

Did you know that Frank Sinatra was a devoted friend to the Jewish people and a lifelong supporter of the State of Israel? Growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra’s Jewish neighbor, Mrs. Golden, often babysat while his mother was out working. She spoke to him in Yiddish and served him coffee cake and apples. He was so touched by her kindness that for many years, Sinatra wore a mezuzah charm that she gave him.   In 1943, he performed in Ben Hecht’s “We Will Never Die” pageant at Madison Square Garden to raise awareness of the Holocaust. He also starred in short films about antisemitism and religious intolerance.   In 1962, Sinatra traveled to Israel for the first time. He performed seven concerts, including one for Israeli troops. He also sang at the official Independence Day event in Tel Aviv and was seated beside Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and General Moshe Dayan on the reviewing stand during the IDF parade.   In 1995, he marked his 80th birthday with a trip to Israel on his private plane. He was accompanied by several close friends, including Lee Iacocca and Walter Matthau. The group spent time in Eilat, Jordan, and Egypt. Sinatra's love for Israel and the Jewish people remained constant throughout his life. He passed away at the age of 82 on May 14, 1998, the 50th anniversary of Israel's independence. Photo: Frank Sinatra watching the Independence Day parade in Tel Aviv, 1962 (GPO)

My 99 year-old Jewish Grandpa was also a B-17 pilot in WWII. Every Hanukkah he can be found making latkes with his favorite schmaltz. #HappyHanukkah Source: @itsmayaono

In a heroic act, the Chief Rabbi of Odessa broke Shabbat observance in order to bring 250 orphans from his city to safety in the midst of the ongoing violence. "I told them that we are here to fulfill God's will, and on this Shabbat, His will is for us to escape to save lives."

These are my beautiful parents, Harry & Ilse. Both Holocaust Survivors but totally different survival stories. My father survived 6 concentration camps and lost his entire family. My mother and her family were saved thanks to incredible people who jeopardized their own lives to do the right thing. This picture reflects their love but especially their happiness about being alive and enjoying life. My parents taught me that hate is never a way to go through life; Love is. Source: Aki Goldberg

On June 6, 1944, a synagogue on West 23rd Street in New York City held 24-hour special services on D-Day to pray for the Allied troops as they landed on the beaches of Normandy.

Anne Frank was born 95 years ago on June 12, 1929. Eighty two years ago, she received a blank diary for her 13th birthday.

Performance of Schindler’s List last week at Temple @EmanuEl_NYC. Never Again is Now. Video: @davidaaroncarpenter

Hedy Lamarr was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe. She was born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. By the 1930’s she was a film star in Europe, and before long, she achieved similar recognition in the US. In addition to her acting career, Hedy also pursued inventing.   Inspired to help the US efforts during WWII, she dedicated herself to designing a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that would counter the threat of jamming. Ultimately her innovation was not used during the war, but the principles she developed are now integrated into modern technologies such as Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth.   On August 11, 1942, Hedy Lamarr was granted a patent for her revolutionary 'frequency hopping communication system', which is the basis of much of today's wireless technology. In recognition of her achievements, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Just months after the revelations of the Holocaust's devastation, Bess Myerson was crowned the first (and only) Jewish Miss America in September 1945. Myerson refused to adopt a suggested less-ethnic pseudonym, and her victory was seen as a symbol of America's rejection of the crimes and prejudices that ravaged Europe as well as a representation of the vitality of the American Jewish community. Myerson's win did not receive automatic acceptance. When an invitation to speak at a country club was revoked because of her Judaism, Myerson distanced herself from the pageant scene, and instead began lecturing about discrimination and the consequences of prejudice. Source: @jwaonline

Captain Uri Bar Lev is a 93-year-old retired El Al pilot who currently resides in the moshav of his childhood near Netanya, Israel. He also made aviation history as the only pilot to successfully thwart an in-air hijacking.   In 1948, Captain Bar Lev was a 16-year-old pilot during Israel's War of Independence and later in the 1956 War. On September 6, 1970, he was the pilot of El Al Flight 219, en route from Tel Aviv to New York via Amsterdam when two hijackers threatened the crew and passengers.   Demonstrating remarkable skill and bravery, Captain Uri executed a move reminiscent of the "Split Ace" combat maneuver employed during World War I, effectively preventing the hijacking. He initiated a dive, lowering the plane's altitude to minimize the potential impact of any explosion or damage. The sudden descent caught the hijackers off guard, causing them to lose their footing and fall to the ground. It was then that the air marshal swiftly neutralized one of the hijackers. Meanwhile, the second hijacker was apprehended after losing consciousness due to the dramatic shift in air pressure. Captain Bar Lev's heroic actions not only saved the lives of those on board El Al Flight 219 but also prevented a potential disaster.   Today, Captain Uri enjoys a peaceful life in Israel, and next month he will be celebrating his 94th birthday!

She is best known for her dancing, singing and choreography, but did you know that Paula Abdul celebrated her Bat Mitzvah ten years ago in Israel?   Paula Abdul was born in California on June 19, 1962. Her father, Harry, was born to a Sephardic family in Aleppo, Syria, and raised in Brazil before emigrating to the US. Her mother, Lorraine, is from a Canadian Jewish family, one of only two Jewish families in Minnedosa, Manitoba at that time.   In 2013, Paula fulfilled a lifelong dream by making her first trip to Israel to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah. She described it as a personal and emotional experience and said it was a perfect moment that unexpectedly transformed her life.   This Monday, she will be celebrating her 61st birthday. #MazalTov

🥹😭 Source: @ nycc.noah

CONDOLENCES: Sgt. Benjamin Ferencz was the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials. Born in 1920 to a Jewish family in Transylvania, @BenFerencz was 10 months old when his family arrived in the US. After graduating Harvard Law School in 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, landing in Normandy and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Ferencz was later transferred to a newly created War Crimes Branch and tasked with collecting evidence of Nazi brutality. He joined the forces that liberated a number of concentration camps, including Buchenwald and Mauthausen. When asked about the haunting scenes he witnessed, Ferencz said he “had peered into hell.” He and his team collected indisputable evidence in Berlin, including the actual death registries. Ferencz was later appointed Chief Prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Case, in which 22 members of Himmler’s Einsatzgruppen death squads were charged with murdering over a million Jewish men, women, and children. At age 27, the young attorney’s first case was what many call the biggest murder trial in history. All 22 defendants were convicted and 13 were sentenced to death. Mr. Ferencz, a lifelong advocate for international justice, passed away yesterday at the age of 103. May his memory be a blessing. Contributor: @Jggoltz

“The Nazis occupied our village when I was only 12 years old. At first they didn’t realize we were Jewish. We looked like our neighbors. But then someone reported us. So our home was registered as a Jewish residence. We knew our days were numbered. Time was a ticking bomb. Then late one night a non-Jewish friend of ours showed up at our house. “Listen to me,” he told us with great urgency. “Dig a hole under your fence and crawl out two at a time. Someone will meet you at the other end and lead you to safety. Tomorrow all the Jews in town will be executed”. His name was Kazi Bitdayev. And he secretly took all 6 of us to the neighboring village of Zheguta. He hid us there for 8 months, each week coming back for us and relocating us to a new basement or attic. He protected us. He fed us. He was our angel. After the war we searched for him for decades, desperate to thank him for saving our lives. But it was no use. We couldn’t find him. Last year we finally located Kazi's grandchildren. And got to thank them. A moment I waited for my whole life. Hashem has truly blessed me. - In loving memory of Zinayida Segal (pictured holding a photo of her rescuer Kazi) Source: @RostovRabbi

My ultimate revenge against Hitler is kissing my great grandchildren at the age of 95! I took back my power and decided not just to live, but to thrive! Source: @DrEdithEger1

Happy 77th Wedding Anniversary to my Grandparents and Holocaust Survivors, Joseph & Olga Garay. #MazalTov Source: Joshua Garay

Mr. Joseph Alexander, a Holocaust Survivor, will celebrate his 101st birthday in a few weeks. He was born in a small town not too far from where my family come from in Poland. He survived the Warsaw Ghetto and 7 German Nazi camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau. He moved to the United States at the end of the war and ended up in California in the 1950s, where he has lived to this day. Today, Joseph wrote a letter in our Survivor Torah and I just love listening to Joseph speak, his mind is as sharp as it was when he was a young man, his stories of the old country transport me to a place in time I could have only read in an Isaac Bashevis Singer book. I wanted Joseph to join us on Yom Kippur in the Synagogue, he politely refused as he’s the ‘Gabbai’, the warden, of his Synagouge, I’m pretty certain he’s the oldest person to have ever held this role. Please G-d we should all merit to spend a lot more time with this remarkable man! Source: Jonny Daniels

Holocaust survivors arrive at the Haifa Port, 1945. Photo: Zoltan Kluger, @GPOIsrael

Shabbat Shalom from The Spanish Synagogue in Prague, known as one of the most beautiful synagogues in Europe. Photo: @Noam_Chen

These are my grandparents. This photo was taken on the Lower East Side of New York. My grandmother Miriam was born in the old city of Jerusalem on December 10, 1920. Her mother was born in Jerusalem as was her grandmother, great grandmother and so on. My grandmother Miriam was 7th generation Jerusalem born/Yerushalmi – her family having returned to our homeland in the 1800’s. My great grandparents moved the family to New York when my grandmother was 4 years old since, at that time, life for Jews in Jerusalem had become increasingly dangerous. I am so proud of this branch on my family tree. This is my family history and I won’t allow anyone to try and erase it. ✡️

31 year old American Israeli Danny Lewin was the first victim of the September 11th attacks.   Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1970, Lewin's family moved to Israel when he was just a teenager. Danny soon served as an officer in the IDF and later attended Technion’s technology institute while also working full-time for IBM. In 1996, Lewin received a scholarship at MIT and moved back to the US to pursue his PhD. In 1998, he co-founded Akamai Technologies, making him a millionaire before he turned 30.   On September 11, 2001, Danny was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11. He was headed to LA on business, and at some point, he must have sensed something was wrong. According to an FBI report, in an act of heroism, Lewin attempted to stop two of the terrorists when a third terrorist fatally stabbed him from behind. This has been recorded as the first death from the 9/11 tragedy.   May his memory be a blessing. Photo: Akamai.com

Did you know that during WWII, doctors at an Italian hospital invented a fake deadly disease to fool the Nazis and save Jewish lives? It was called Syndrome K (Il Morbo di K), described as highly contagious and fatal, but it was completely made up.   Fatebenefratelli Hospital became known as a safe haven for Jews under the direction of Dr. Giovanni Borromeo. On October 16, 1943, the Catholic hospital opened its doors to Jews seeking shelter. Borromeo knew the hospital was likely to be searched, so he, along with two doctors, Vittorio Sacerdoti and Adriano Ossicini, devised a clever plan. Any Jew seeking refuge at the hospital would be admitted as a new patient, quarantined, and diagnosed with Syndrome K.   When the Nazis arrived to search the hospital, they were told about patients stricken with the deadly and disfiguring disease. The ruse worked, preventing the Germans from entering those areas of the hospital and making Syndrome K a “disease” that actually saved lives.

From last Hanukkah: My 99 year-old Jewish Grandpa was also a B-17 pilot in WWII. Every Hanukkah he can be found making latkes with his favorite schmaltz. Source: @itsmayaono

“This is my sweet grandpa Abraham Weiss wearing the prison camp uniform he was forced to wear as a teenager during the Holocaust in Auschwitz.. he lost his entire family because they were the ‘wrong race’ in someone else’s opinion, and miraculously avoided his own untimely death 9 times (!!!) I miss you Saba. A lot. Your legacy is always with us.. your love for life and all people.. your ability to forgive and to see the good in everything. You were bigger than life and you are so missed.” - @GalGadot

Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908. “One day Simon called and said that he would like to celebrate his 90th birthday with a few friends in Vienna. I asked him where he would like to celebrate. He said, ‘I have one unfulfilled wish, to have a party at the Imperial Hotel.’ He told me that it was Hitler’s favorite hotel and that both Hitler and Himmler had permanent suites there. They built enormous bunkers beneath the hotel, which still exist today, because Hitler thought that this would serve as an ideal headquarters from where he could conduct the Second World War. During the Third Reich, it would have been unthinkable, Simon said, for a Jew to be seen at the Imperial Hotel. ‘And I want to make sure,’ he said, ‘that all the taboos of the Third Reich are broken and that the record of this hotel would affirm that Simon Wiesenthal celebrated his 90th birthday here with a Kosher dinner.’ On the night of the dinner, when the band played a favorite Yiddish song, ‘Belz, Mein Shtetele Belz’ (Belz, My Little Shtetl Belz), he looked up at the ceiling, turned to me, and said: ‘You see even the chandeliers are shaking because this is the first time they have ever heard such music here. Let the record read,’ he said, ‘that Hitler is no longer here, but even in the Imperial Hotel, Jews are still alive and still singing.’” - Rabbi Marvin Hier reflecting on Simon Wiesenthal’s birthday. Source: @simonwiesenthal

This is a photo of the Kutz family before October 7. They were found huddled together in their home's bomb shelter. None of them survived. We will never forget.

“My grandfather came to America as a very poor immigrant during WWI. His father, a German Jew went AWOL from the the German army during the war in 1914. When WWII broke out, my grandfather voluntarily enlisted in the US army to help fight the Nazis. He flew over 40 successful missions and bombed the heck out of those Nazis! He would have been 96. I was so blessed he was able to dance at my wedding.” Source: Debbie Rauh

78 years ago today, April 11, 1945, the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated by American forces. Pictured are survivors from Buchenwald at the Haifa Port on the way to the Atlit Detention Camp (July, 1945). The little boy holding the flag is Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel. At 8 years old, Lau was one of the youngest survivors of Buchenwald. His brother Naphtali (on the left) looked after him throughout the war and together they made it to Israel. Contributor: @Jggoltz

Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908. “One day Simon called and said that he would like to celebrate his 90th birthday with a few friends in Vienna. I asked him where he would like to celebrate. He said, ‘I have one unfulfilled wish, to have a party at the Imperial Hotel.’ He told me that it was Hitler’s favorite hotel and that both Hitler and Himmler had permanent suites there. They built enormous bunkers beneath the hotel, which still exist today, because Hitler thought that this would serve as an ideal headquarters from where he could conduct the Second World War. During the Third Reich, it would have been unthinkable, Simon said, for a Jew to be seen at the Imperial Hotel. ‘And I want to make sure,’ he said, ‘that all the taboos of the Third Reich are broken and that the record of this hotel would affirm that Simon Wiesenthal celebrated his 90th birthday here with a Kosher dinner.’ On the night of the dinner, when the band played a favorite Yiddish song, ‘Belz, Mein Shtetele Belz’ (Belz, My Little Shtetl Belz), he looked up at the ceiling, turned to me, and said: ‘You see even the chandeliers are shaking because this is the first time they have ever heard such music here. Let the record read,’ he said, ‘that Hitler is no longer here, but even in the Imperial Hotel, Jews are still alive and still singing.’” - Rabbi Marvin Hier reflecting on Simon Wiesenthal’s birthday. Source: @simonwiesenthal

Raoul Wallenberg’s death remains a mystery to this day. The Swedish diplomat is responsible for saving 100,000 Jewish lives during WWII. Here’s his story. Wallenberg was born on August 4, 1912, to a prominent well-respected family in Sweden. Following his Swedish military service, Wallenberg studied in Paris and in 1931 he attended the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor degree of Science in Architecture. By 1936, Wallenberg had returned to Hungary and went into business. He was later appointed as a special Swedish envoy in Budapest and his job was to carry out a rescue operation for Jews. On July 9, 1944, Wallenberg was granted a diplomatic passport and arrived in Budapest. It was there that he used his diplomatic status to issue protective passes and shelter thousands of Jewish families in protected houses. A few months later, on January 17, 1945, 32-year-old Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet troops and disappeared near Budapest. To this day it is unknown if Raoul Wallenberg died in prison in 1947 as declared by Swedish authorities. Over the years various individuals have reported seeing the Swedish hero, but nothing has ever been verified. On November 26, 1963, Yad Vashem recognized Raoul Wallenberg as Righteous Among the Nations. In 1981, Wallenberg became an honorary citizen of the United States and in 1986, an honorary citizen of Israel. In 2016, 71 years after his disappearance and no trace of his whereabouts, the WWII war hero was declared dead. “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside myself that I'd done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.” – Raoul Wallenberg

April 1945, the moment of liberation. This is a train of Jewish prisoners that had been intercepted by Allied Forces. It is the moment they learned that the train was no longer headed for a concentration camp and instead, they had finally been liberated.

“This is my son Azriel Rifkin (left), who is named after my Grandfather Azriel Shnay Z"L (right), a Holocaust survivor. When my grandfather came to America to start a new life, he decided to go by ‘Allen’. He was proud to be a Jew, but he wanted to blend in with his new surroundings. Perhaps to him, the name Azriel was the equivalent to wearing a yellow star- would he be targeted again? persecuted again? So within the walls of the home that he built, he spoke Yiddish and sang hebrew songs as Azriel. In the outside world, he built a business and lived day-to-day life as Allen. My grandfather passed away two weeks after I found out I was pregnant. So when I gave birth to a baby boy, we knew we wanted to honor his namesake. The question was - would we name him Azriel or Allen? Azriel is hebrew; it means "with the help of G-d." Allen is simple; it would be easier at Starbucks or on his LinkedIn Profile. But what would my Grandfather have wanted? Well, to me the answer was simple. If the Holocaust had not happened, 'Allen' would have never existed. The name 'Allen' was born out of fear, a longing for a new life where it was safe to exist as a Jew. And so, we named him Azriel; the name my Great-Grandmother had chosen in 1925 and the name I know my Grandfather was so proud of. Because in 2017 we didn't have to be afraid anymore. It was no longer acceptable to be antisemitic or racist. Right?! The world had come so far, or so I thought. I am in utter disbelief of what is going on in our country right now and across the world. But I will tell you one thing, those days of living in fear and silence are over. I have never been prouder of my heritage, of my people, and of my Azriel.” Source: Deborah Shnay Rifkin

I simply wanted to share this story with all of you and yours and to wish EVERYONE (regardless of what traditions you follow) joy and happiness and most of all PEACE. And remember that miracles can happen. Source: Eva Tenenbaum-Kirshenblatt

Born Golda Mabowitz on May 3, 1898 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Golda Meir was a teacher, an Israeli politician who was amongst the founders of the State of Israel and the State’s fourth prime minister – Israel’s first and the world’s third woman to have served in this position. Here is a collection of Golda snapshots during her PM years🧵 Golda Meir is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Israel, 1969.

Each year on Yom Hashoah, everything comes to a halt as sirens blare across Israel; a moment of silence is observed for Holocaust remembrance.

This is my father, Jules Phineas Kirsch, born on April 27, 1930. After growing up in a single parent household amidst the Great Depression, Jules graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in mathematics. He subsequently served as a Lt. Commander in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Following his tour of duty, Jules enrolled and graduated from Harvard Law School and became a civil rights activist advocating for impoverished minorities in the Deep South. In the 1970s, Jules served as the Chairman of the Westchester County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He also was one of the organizers of the Southern Student Project, where members who lived in first rate school districts would room and board minority students from disadvantaged school districts in the South. In the twilight of his legal career, Jules also worked for the Office of Thrift Supervision and participated in the civil prosecution of rogue banking executives during the Savings & Loan crisis in the late 1980s. Following his retirement from the practice of law, Jules remained active in local and national politics. Sadly, he passed away a few weeks ago on June 17th. He was 93. May his memory be a blessing. Source: Eric D. Kirsch

Each year on Yom Hashoah, everything comes to a halt as sirens blare across Israel; a moment of silence is observed for Holocaust remembrance. #NeverForget #NeverAgain

You may remember Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen in the Netflix series, The Spy. On May 18, 1965, Eli Cohen was executed by the Syrian regime. Born to to a Mizrahi Jewish family, Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen was born on December 6, 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1949, his parents and brothers left for Israel, while Eli stayed behind to finish his studies. He was fluent in 5 languages. In 1956, Cohen was expelled from Egypt and moved to Israel. He joined Israeli intelligence, infiltrating the highest ranks of Syria's military & political elite. His heroic efforts saved many lives over the years. “Without continuous personal development, you are now all that you will ever become, and hell starts when the person you are meets the person you could have been.” - Eli Cohen May his memory be a blessing.

One year ago at this time, in April 2024, 100 year old Auschwitz survivor Lily Ebert became a great-great-grandmother. “I never expected to survive the Holocaust. Now I have five beautiful generations. The Nazis did not win!” #AmYisraelChai Lily’s extraordinary legacy lives on. May her memory be a blessing. Source: @DovForman

Judith Love Cohen was a NASA engineer who helped create the Abort-Guidance System, used to rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts. She went to work one day and started going into labor. Judith took a printout of a work problem she was working on to the hospital. She later called her boss to let him know she solved the problem and then gave birth to @JackBlack.

His final words: “My name is Daniel Pearl. My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, and I am a Jew." As part of their propaganda efforts, Pearl was forced by his captors to make a statement before his death. These were some of his now famous final words. Daniel Pearl was a Jewish American journalist and reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Just four months after the September 11 attacks, he was taken hostage by terrorists and brutally murdered in Pakistan on February 1, 2002. Upon learning that his wife, Mariane, was expecting a baby boy just two days before he was abducted, Pearl decided on the name Adam for his son. In May 2002, Mariane gave birth to Adam Pearl. Today, his family and friends continue to honor his legacy through the Daniel Pearl Foundation. May his memory be a blessing.

Watch the unbelievable moment Holocaust survivor Lila sees her grandson flying over her home in Israel. January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Never Again is Now.

On September 5-6, 1972, 11 Israelis were killed in an attack known as the Munich Massacre. During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, members of a Palestinian terrorist group stormed the Olympic Village, killing 2 members of the Israeli delegation, and taking 9 more hostage. One of the athletes present that day was runner and racewalker Shaul Ladany who, along with 5 others, was able to escape from their apartment. Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1936, Ladany fled to Budapest with his family after their home was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1941. His parents tried to hide him in a monastery, but they were captured and sent from the Budapest ghetto to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. Ladany spent 6 months there before being rescued on a train to Switzerland. He immigrated to Israel in 1948 and went on to become a world champion, world record holder, two-time Olympian, and a renowned professor of industrial engineering. Today, Ladany is still an active racer, participating in marathons and completed the Maccabiah Fun Run last summer. The 87 year old visits the graves of his Israeli teammates in Tel Aviv every year on September 6th. May the memories of the 11 Israelis killed in the Munich Massacre - David Berger, Ze’ev Friedman, Yossef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Romano, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer, Moshe Weinberg - forever be a blessing. Contributor: @Jggoltz

Oskar Schindler was born on April 28, 1908. Pictured here are Holocaust survivors he saved, standing alongside individuals from the movie Schindler’s List at his grave in Jerusalem. Schindler is responsible for saving the lives of approximately 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. He passed away in 1974 and is buried in Israel. In 1993, he was formally recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, and more than 8,000 descendants are alive today as a result of his efforts. Photo: @yadvashem