0 ening The Nation's Library fibk &Rowe of Novi Our specialities: Batti/siatta 2U ~ iute vs {t Inhabitants of a vanished shtetl take up residence in Washington. SHARON SAMBER Jewish Telegraphic Agency T ance and respectability that many Jewish immigrants had when they left Europe for the goldina medina, or the "gold- en land," as America was known in Yiddish. Ziegelman was 10 when he left Luboml in 1938 with his mother and sister. At the time, there were about 5,000 Jews there. Four years later, 4,000 of Luboml's Jews were marched to pits on the edge of town and killed. Only 51 Jews remained in the town after the war, and no Jews live there today. In one of his trips back to Luboml, Ziegelman spoke to the townspeople, some of whom recalled that the economic situation had been better when Jews lived there in the 1930s. The town's mayor, however, told Ziegelman that some he Polish shted of Luboml no longer exists, but a trove of photos and artifacts that document the town's Jewish past has a new lease on life in downtown Washington. With a handshake and a thank you earlier this month, Aaron Ziegelman donated his collection of photographs and artifacts from Luboml to the Library of Congress. The exhibit will be housed permanently in the library's American Folklife Center. Ziegelman, 74, a New York real estate magnate and phi- lanthropist who was born in Luboml, spent years gath- ering photographs, letters, Judaica, maps and other materials documenting everyday life in the typical shtetl community. The area is part of Ukraine today. James Billington, the librarian of Congress, praised Ziegelman for having "kept alive a memory that oth- ers sought to destroy" The Polish ambassador to the United States, Przemyslaw Grudzinski, noted that shtetls are an important part of Polish Jewish history, and made ref- erence to the rabbinic concept that to save one life is tantamount to saving the whole world. "To save the memory of one shtetl as a living organ- ism is to save the life of other shtetls," he said. Indeed, the images of Luboml — Libivne in Yiddish — are representative of many Jewish communities that Marking the donation of the Luboml collection are, from left to right, Dr. James H Da: Jill Vexlei; Aaron Ziegelman, existed across Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. . Marjorie Ziegelman, Fred Wasserman, Eileen Douglas, Ron Ziegelman wanted to portray the regular lives of Steinman and Ambassador Przemyslaw Grudzinski. Luboml's Jews. His collection for years was a traveling exhibit, displaying rare postage stamps, vodka labels, wedding invitations, silver Kiddush cups and other artifacts residents don't even know Jews ever lived there. Ziegelman is considering sending some memorabilia to the town. to audiences in the United States, Europe and Israel. The materials in the collection also were used in a docu- Ziegelman had gone back to Luboml years ago without a mentary film called Luboml: My Heart Remembers. project in mind. After seeing Schindler's List, however, he In the film, former residents talk lovingly about their began wondering how he could tell the stories of people "beautiful little town," its marketplace, the Great • murdered in the Holocaust. Synagogue and their hard but good daily life. They faced anti-Semitism at school, they said, but such prob- Window Into How Jews Lived lems did not appear to detract from their positive memories. "The shtetl was an entity within a larger world, but it was With Holocaust education placing so much emphasis on complete for them," said Ron Steinman, one of the film's statistics, Ziegelman said, he began collecting artifacts that producers. Douglas/Steinman Productions completed the provided a comprehensive picture of what daily life was film, scheduled to air this fall on PBS, in a little over a year. like for a shtetl's inhabitants. Both the exhibit and the film use many images and pho- "These lovely people were murdered," Ziegelman said in tographs of Luboml. Though there were religious Jews in an interview. "That has more of an impact than numbers. the shtetl, many Jews were not that observant and therefore It's a stronger message." took many pictures, explained Jill Wexler, executive director Michael Grunberger, the head of the Library of of the Luboml exhibition project. Congress' Hebraic section, said the library needs to work When people immigrated to the United States and other on developing collections about life in Eastern Europe. countries they took their prized possessions — including "This is a window into how Jews lived — not how they their photographs — with them, and have shared them for died, but how they lived," he said. the exhibit, she said. By donating the collection to the Library of Congress, it Ziegelman never seems to tire of telling about how his becomes part of a permanent collection and will be digi- collection came together and how it will soon be seen by tized for the Internet, Ziegelman said. thousands of people. But beyond that, he had a symbolic reason for the dona- "It's the fulfillment of a dream," he said. Li tion: It represents the fulfillment of the dream of accept- Datiftee Stieutvt Sfvdnvp d. 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