Jewish Community News

News: September 2008

March of the Living 2008 experience
By Lindsay Greensweig & Ruth Zaltsmann

This past spring, 15 Silicon Valley teens, accompanied by Isaac Goldstein, a local Holocaust survivor, and three adult staff members, participated in the March of the Living. The group shared a bus with teens from other parts of the West Coast and Rabbi Eitan Julius, former spiritual leader of Congregation Sinai, who served as the trip rabbi and educator.
          On Yom HaShoah, the group marched with more than 10,000 people from Auschwitz to Birkenau. “We are marching to build a better world for all humanity, so that no nation, no people, should ever have an Auschwitz, or a Majdanek or a Treblinka built for their annihilation,” said Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, chairman of the International March of the Living. “You are the bridge between the past and future…that in times to come, when you have your own children, you will be the witnesses for the witnesses, you will tell them about this march and the stories the survivors entrusted with you. This is your sacred duty, your most important mitzvah.”
    In Israel, the group partied on a disco boat on the Kineret,  hiked in the Golan and climbed Masada at four in the morning to watch the sunrise before floating in the Dead Sea. On Yom Hazikaron the group joined the Ein Gedi community to mourn the loss of thousands of Israeli soldiers and the victims of terror. The next day Yom Ha’atzmaut was celebrated on the streets of Jerusalem. The 60th birthday party concluded with a rock out concert at Latrun. On Friday we toured Yad Vashem and the Old City. The day concluded with a Shabbat ceremony at the Wall.