Twenty two students from the AMIT Tzfat Evelyn Schreiber Jr. & Sr. Ulpana High School represented the State of Israel and the city of Tzfat in a “march of the living” in memory of the city’s inhabitants who perished in the Holocaust and to mark the 74th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Salonika (Thessaloniki) to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
As part of a “Young Ambassadors” program, the students participated in a four-day visit to Thessaloniki, Greece. During the visit, the students connected with the Jewish community in Salonika, met with its leaders and learned about its heritage. The students were hosted by the Jewish elementary school, spoke with the students and staff, and heard about their determination to continue to maintain Jewish education there. In a moving meeting at a residential home for the elderly, the students met Holocaust survivors who shared the story of the destruction of the city’s Jewish community.
After a festive Shabbat, in which the students were warmly hosted by the members of the community, the girls participated in a concert memorializing the 50,000 martyrs of the Salonika community who perished in the Holocaust and honoring the survivors. Before returning to Israel, the students represented the State of Israel on the Salonika “march of the living”, in which they marched from the location of the Salonika Jewish ghetto to the railway station where tens of thousands of Jews from Salonika were sent to the Auschwitz death camp. Thousands of residents took part in the march, including Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Irit Ben Abba, the mayor of Salonika and other dignitaries.
Rabbi Yehuda Peles, principal of the ulpana, who accompanied the students during the visit commented, “Abstract concepts such as connection and responsibility between Jews everywhere, a future that draws on the past, and the eternity of the Jewish people, suddenly acquired tangible meaning for the students in a journey of heritage and identity that will not be forgotten”.
