JULY 18 • 2024 | 19

PHOTOS COURTESY THE ZEKELMAN CENTER

does not compare to eating 
homemade food and about 
the role of traditional foods, 
explaining, “It isn’t Friday night 
if you don’t have chicken.” 
During the pandemic, when 
Goodman was 17, he recorded 
videos of his grandmother’s 
stories and started posting 
them on social media to 
educate people about the 
Holocaust because he saw that 
his friends and other young 
people did not know about it. 
Goodman emphasized that 
many people do not have 
access to Holocaust education, 
and that even for those who 
do, there is often a disconnect 
between educators and 
their students. Working and 
traveling together, Goodman 
and Friedman tell Friedman’s 
story in a way that resonates 
with Goodman’s generation. 
The pair have developed a 
substantial audience of 500,000 
followers, about 70 percent of 
whom are under 35, and have 
amassed about 10 million likes. 
Friedman described the 
need to portray the events of 
the Holocaust as “not long ago 

and not far away,” emphasizing 
that the antisemitism that led 
to the Holocaust is still very 
much apparent today. He also 
stressed the importance of not 
being a bystander. 
Friedman has published 
a memoir, The Daughter of 
Auschwitz, and will soon 
publish an illustrated book, 
The Girl Who Lived to Tell Her 
Story, telling her story as a 
12-year-old, based on an idea 
from Goodman. 
At the dessert reception 
following the program, 
Friedman signed copies of 
the book and attendees tasted 
Ruth Webber’s honey cake and 
cappuccino cookies, among 
other desserts, and discussed 
their reactions. 
As Zalewska described 
during the event, “You cannot 
wear your ancestors’ shoes, but 
you can make the foods they 
cooked,” and the event was 
an important opportunity to 
connect with survivors’ stories 
of their lives before, during and 
after the war, and for the love 
and memories inherent in their 
recipes to endure. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau 
survivor and cookbook 
contributor Ruth 
Webber with her family 

Ruth Webber signs 
copies of the book that 
includes her recipes.

Recipes from the 
cookbook yield 
desserts like Webber’s 
Honey Cake and her 
Cappuchino Cookies.