December 4, 2009
92YTribeca
Thanks to all members and supporters of 3GNY for joining us at what was a moving Shabbat dinner. Guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Bernard Gotfryd shared his story.
Mr. Gotfryd was born in Radom, Poland, and became interested in photography at an early age. When World War II broke out and schools were closed to Jewish students, Gotfryd found work as an apprentice in a photography studio. While working in the studio, he began aiding the Polish underground by passing on photographs taken by Nazi officers of war atrocities. After an unsuccessful escape attempt in October 1943, Gotfryd was apprehended and shipped to Maidanek. By the war’s end, Gotfryd had survived six concentration camps.
In 1947, Mr. Gotfryd emigrated to the United States, where he worked as a photographer and studied photojournalism. After being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1949 and going through basic training, Mr. Gotfryd was assigned to the Signal Corps as a combat photographer. In 1952, he married his wife, Gina. They settled in Forest Hills, Queens, where they raised two children, Howard and Eva.
Mr. Gotfryd joined the staff of Newsweek in 1957, where he worked for more than thirty years, photographing some of the most influential figures of the 20th century. It was while working for Newsweek, covering the Holocaust Survivors Gathering in Washington, D.C., in April 1983, that Mr. Gotfryd was moved to write about his own experiences. First published in Newsweek, his stories were eventually published as a collection, titled Anton the Dove Fancier and Other Tales of the Holocaust.
Copies of Anton the Dove Fancier are available by calling 1-800-537-5487 or visiting this website.
April 24, 2009
We thank Mrs. Claire Boren for being our guest, and telling us her story.
Claire Boren was born in a small Polish town that is now part of Ukraine. She was only five years of age when the Germans came and forced Jewish families into a ghetto. News of the Nazis’ liquidation of the Jews quickly spread and Boren’s father arranged for his wife and daughter to hide with a Christian family nearby. When the family they were staying with began fearing for their own lives, Boren and her mother retreated into the forest with several other Jews.
From there, they found a farm family that was willing to hide them in a hole they had dug beneath the ground. Boren describes this time as a living in a grave and it was there that she retreated into a silent fantasy world. Eventually they relocated once again in to the attic of another home until they were finally liberated by the Russian Army in 1944.
Boren was just a child when the Holocaust began and had repressed most of her memories of the war. It wasn’t until well into her adult life that memories began emerging. They were channeled through her art. Boren today is an accomplished artist, with some of her works’ themes evoking images and memories from the war.
January 23, 2009
We listened to Rosa Sirota, a Holocaust survivor, and an aunt of one of our steering committee members.
Mrs. Sirota was born in Lvov, Poland. She escaped from the Lvov Ghetto with her mother, and they went into hiding under assumed names with Christian Ukrainian peasants, who did not know that they were Jewish. Rosa and her mother were the only survivors, as her father and the rest of her family were killed by the Nazis.
After being liberated by the Russians, they moved back to Poland, where her mother remarried and had another child. The family then moved to Hungary, Czechoslovakia, France, and Venezuela, and eventually settled in the United States. After receiving her Masters degree, Rosa taught Spanish at Farleigh Dickenson University and then in Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ. After retiring, she became an accomplished sculptor, and she recently won first prize at a juried art show.
Some of Rosa’s Holocaust experiences are summarized in Jane Marks’ book: “The Hidden Children – Secret Survivors of the Holocaust”.
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We thank Mrs. Sirota for being our guest and sharing her story with us.
May 9, 2008
We heard from Martin Greenfield, a survivor of Auschwitz and a noted clothier. Since the war, Mr. Greenfield has made a name for himself as a noted clothier – manufacturing special-label suits for Brooks Brothers, Neiman Marcus and individual customers, such as Paul Newman and President Bill Clinton. Mr. Greenfield learned to sew while ironing shirts and placing buttons for the Gestapo as a teenager in Auschwitz.
For 60 years, since he came to New York as a teenager, Mr. Greenfield has been working as a tailor in a factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This is the factory Mr. Greenfield went to work in 1947 as a war refugee, and has since bought.
We thank Mr. Greenfield for sharing his story with us, as well as Manhattan Jewish Experience for hosting us and co-sponsoring the dinner.
A piece on Mr. Greenfield in the New York Times:
Public Lives: Helping Presidents and Others Look Their Best
March 16, 2007
We had another successful Shabbat dinner – our third! Our topic at this dinner was how the Holocaust fits into our identity. Makor’s rabbinic intern, Rachel Silverman, asked us to consider the different aspects of our Jewish identity and the influence on our lives — socially, professionally, politically, etc.
The sense of community at these dinners was apparent. Many friends, old and new, stayed around well after the dinner and talked and connected with each other in Makor’s Lounge.
May 5, 2006
Thanks to everyone who made it to 3GNY’s second Shabbat Dinner. We’d like to thank Makor for hosting us and offer a special thanks to our guest speakers:
- Donald Cohen-Cutler from the Union of Reform Judaism’s Commission on Social Action
- Arielle Cahill from the American Jewish World Service
- Rachel Silverman from Makor, who led our Shabbat service (She also headed the Makor contingent to the Save Darfur Rally in Washington.)
On the heels of the successful Save Darfur Rally on April 30, the evening’s theme was social justice. Specifically, how Jewish tradition and social justice are connected.
The evening began early with a screening of “Paperclips,” the inspirational film documenting a Tennessee middle school’s efforts of commemorating the Holocaust. After the meal, 3GNY led a panel discussion with Donald, Arielle and Rachel. Each described the work they’ve done in helping to end the Darfur genocide and whether they felt their Judaism led them to their positions serving the cause of social justice. They also shared with us their impressions of the Darfur Rally.
January 20, 2006
3GNY would like to thank everyone who was at the Shabbat Dinner on the 20th. The turnout was incredible — our largest yet – and we’re very excited about the continued and growing interest. This was also the first event of what will be an important and productive year for our group.
We’d like to thank Makor for hosting and organizing the dinner, especially Rachel Silverman, Makor’s rabbinic intern who lead the service.
We’d also like to offer a special thanks to Thane Rosenbaum for giving a novel and thoughtful talk about his book “The Golems of Gotham”. He read a chapter from “Golems” and he also brought up several Holocaust-related issues we have yet to discuss as a group. Of note: the use of the Holocaust in works of fiction, how and where it’s been trivialized (Thane touched upon Anne Frank’s diary and how the version most of us know was watered down for public consumption – by her father) and how suicide among Holocaust survivors is extremely rare. This fact came up as Thane discussed the book’s main character, Ariel, trying to bring back to life her grandparents – survivors who committed suicide before she was born. These topics got people talking. To continue discussing these issues and others, please visit the discussion boards on our website.
