COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Exhibit Chronicles Experiences
Of Jewish Soldiers-Liberators
Teach Your Cliildr en Well
I
ror of the Holocaust when
n May 1945, Harvey
they liberated Ohrdruf in
Cohen, a rifle platoon
April 1945. The victims
leader from Atlanta,
were Jews, Gypsies,
stumbled with his unit on
Jehovah's Witnesses,
the Gunskirchen Concen-
political dissidents, homo-
tration Camp in Austria.
sexuals, the mentally and
"We started seeing a
physically disabled.
few people in terrible
Jewish soldiers were
shape. Actually, you
well represented among
couldn't call them people;
the front-
they were
line troops.
skin and
Among the
bones, just
questions
indescrib-
the exhibi-
able."
tion attempts
The expe-
to answer
riences of
are: How
Jewish sol-
did the GIs
diers who
respond to
liberated
what they
death camps
saw? What
is the focus
interaction
of a new
did they
exhibit at
have with
Washing-
the
sur-
ton's Na-
vivors?
tional Mu-
What effect
seum of
did this
American A guard tower at Auschwitz
experience have on their
Jewish Military History.
lives as Jews and as
The exhibit, the first of its
Americans?
kind, features pho-
For information, contact
tographs, memorabilia
the National Museum of
and recorded firsthand
American Jewish Military
accounts from a nation-
History at 1811 R St. NW,
wide cross-section of liber-
Washington, D.C. 20009,
ators.
or call (202) 265-6280.
American soldiers came
face to face with the hor-
Israeli Village Takes The Prize
N
eve Shalorn/Wahat
al-Salam recently
was awarded the
"Niwano"
Japanese
Peace Prize.
Neve Shalom/VVahat
al-Salam (Hebrew and
Arabic for "Oasis of
Peace") was selected
from more than 700
individuals and orga-
nizations. It was cho-
sen for its contribu-
tion to interreli-
gious cooperation
and its part in fur-
thering world
peace.
The village was
founded in 1972 by Jews
and Arabs with the aim
of building mutual trust
and living a peaceful
coexistence. It runs the
only binational, bilingual
primary school in t
country, which ser
both residents of the V
lage and children fr ,
neighboring COMITinl -
ties.
Neve ShalomlWahat
al-Salam's School for
Peace is an indepen
dent educational insti-
tution that runs pro-
grams such as
encounter seminars
for teachers, work-
shops for teens and
a master's course
on "Dealing with
the Israeli-Palestin-
ian Conflict" in con-
junction with Tel Aviv
University. Some 15,000
adolescents and adults
have participated in
School for Peace pro-
grams.
'c
o
You Heard It
Here First
T
orah Psychologist,"
"Chutzpah on the
Hudson" and "The
Rapping Rabbi" are three
of the programs listeners
will find on WLIR, an all-
Jewish radio station that
began broadcasting this
month in New York and
New Jersey.
The station, which
broadcasts 24 hours a day
every day (except
Shabbat), is the brainchild
of Zev Brenner, who for
the past 12 years has been
conducting a weekly
Jewish talk show in New
York.
"Although WLIR broad-
casts from Nanuet, N.Y.,
on only 500 watts, we
really are a superstation
because our programs will .
be delivered by satellite to.
more than 5 million own-
ers of home satellite dish-
es in this country,
Canada, Mexico and the
Carribbean," Mr. Brenner
said.
Heaven Can't Wait
el Aviv (JTA) —
There is only one
T God in heaven, but
there are at least two
ways to view the skies,
according to the planetari-
um at Tel Aviv's Ha'aretz
Museum.
The planetarium now has
two scripts for lectures to
the audience at the night-
sky show: one for secular
viewers and the other for
observant Jews.
The decision to use two
different scripts followed
a halachic ruling by the
Eda Haredit, which repre-
sents a group of extreme,
right-wing Orthodox, for-
bidding its members to
visit the planetarium
because its guides and
pamphlets say that cre-
ation began about 15 bil-
lion years ago.
ith the frequent
anti-Semitic out-
breaks and dese-
crations of Holocaust
memorials in Germany,
many may wonder exactly,
what the country's educa-
tors are teaching German
youth about World War
II. The New York-based
German Information
Center attempts to
answer that question in a
new report, 'Holocaust
Education in Germany."
The report notes that
all education in Germany
is coordinated on a
national level. "The treat-
ment of the Nazi period
in all its aspects —
Hitler's rise to power, his
establishment of a dicta
torship in Germany, the
abolition of the rule of
law, the persecution of all
kinds of political oppo
nents, the racially moti-
vated persecution of the
Jews culminating in the
Holocaust, the reticence
and opposition of German
citizens, and German's
instigation of World War
II --- is compulsory teach-
ing matter at all types of
schools in Germany and
at all levels of education.
The Holocaust is treated
as the most important
aspect of the period of
Nazi rule," the report
reads.
German students study
the Nazi period in histo-
ry, civic studies and cur-
rent affairs courses, and
in classes on religion and
ethics. "Postwar German
literature, above all in
the 1950s and 1960s, is
preoccupied with coming
to terms with the Nazi
era and the Holocaust."
School excursions regu-
larly include visits to a
Holocaust memorial or
Nazi death camp.
Students are not
taught merely facts,
according to the report.
"Instead, the primary
political and educational
objective for confronting
young Germans with
their country's darkest
past and their ancestors'
guilt is, above all, to
make them understand
the consequences of
Hitler's dictatorship, the
uniqueness of the
Holocaust, and to make
them appreciate the val-
ues and institutions that
protect freedom and
democrac "
Building The Camp Of A Lifetime
C
hai Lifeline is orga-
nizing for its second
full-time Camp
Simcha in Israel for chil-
dren with cancer and
other life-threatening ill-
nesses.
The camp, held
last year outside
Tel Aviv, is the
only kosher
camp facility
in the world of C.7
its kind. Last
year's program
featured trips, C
concerts and
parties. One after-
noon was spent in
Eilat, where children
and counselors danced
together on a glass-bottom
boat in the middle of the
Gulf of Aqaba. Counselors
included young men and
women from Israel,
England and Australia,
and American youth who
paid their own way.
An important feature of
744.
the camp is the on-site
medical care. Because a
Camp Simcha child could
experience a medical
emergency at any time,
the camp insists that
every child always be
accompanied by
medical expert
help.
In addition to
its Israeli pro-
gram, Chai
Lifeline is work-
ing to build a
permanent
camp site in the
United States, at
Glen Spey, N.Y.
The organization also
provides numerous free pro-
grams, including be-
reavement support and
Hebrew tutoring, to chil-
dren in the New York area.
For information, contact
Chai Lifeline at 48 W.
25th St., New York, N.Y.
10010, or call (212) 255-
1160.