International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is commemorated on January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—is a worldwide reminder to honor the 6 million Jews and other victims of Nazism who perished during World War II. The United Nations designated the day as a stark reminder of how hatred and extremism can snowball into genocide, and also as an opportunity to develop educational programs to prevent such atrocities from taking place in the future.
Students in the AMIT network not only are taught about the Holocaust regularly in school and on their annual trips to Poland. They are also taught to interact with Holocaust survivors who live in their communities, and AMIT students all across Israel do so frequently.
Just last week, students at AMIT Hammer Junior and Senior High School for Boys in Rehovot honored Holocaust survivor David “Dugo” Leitner by eating the quintessential Israeli food—falafel. Leitner commemorates his liberation from Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 18 by eating falafel and treating everyone in the vicinity of Zenani Falafel in Ashdod to the tasty treat.
Leitner sees falafel as a symbol of the Israeli spirit’s triumph over suffering and starvation.
The AMIT Hammer students heard about his story and were inspired to organize a falafel lunch for all the school’s classes. They even took pictures of themselves eating and holding up signs reading “Am Yisrael Chai,” as Leitner asks people to do.
“The story of Dugo, a man of great strength, left a deep impression on the students,” said Rav Rafi Maimon, the school’s principal. “Seeing a Holocaust survivor who survived such hell continue to live with great faith deepened the students’ faith in perpetuity of the people and land of Israel.”
This is just one example of AMIT students remembering the Holocaust, and more importantly, the survivors. Other AMIT schools also recently undertook initiatives to help elderly Holocaust survivors, many of whom live alone or below the poverty line in Israel.
At another school, the AMIT Anna Teich Ulpanat Haifa, girls recently launched a drive to sell bracelets inscribed with the line “We vowed to remember and be there for them forever.” The girls used the proceeds to buy space heaters, blankets, hot water kettles, socks, and other supplies for Holocaust survivors in the city, putting into action their promise never to forget.
