The service was held at the center, which was founded in…
By Betsy Scheinbart
More than 100 Holocaust survivors and residents of the Margaret Tietz Center in Jamaica attended a Holocaust memorial last week with New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who is running for mayor.
The service was held at the center, which was founded in 1971 to care for aging Holocaust survivors and still serves 110 survivors in its 200-bed, not-profit residential health care facility.
“A few days after the joyous occasion of Passover we commemorate the tragic murder of 6 million Jews,” said Rabbi Esor Ben-Sorek.
Like the Jewish Holidays of Passover and Hanukkah, Holocaust Memorial Day, which is called Yom HaShoa in Hebrew, follows the Jewish calendar, so the date varies on the U.S. calendar.
Congress and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council established the memorial day in 1980 and it has been observed annually at the Tietz center since 1984.
That year the center received a special Torah, the Jewish holy book, which is also the first five books of the Christian Bible.
The Torah was desecrated during the Holocaust and reconditioned in England, said Kenneth Brown, the president and chief executive officer of the center.
Brown said that while he did not want to make the memorial a political event, he invited Hevesi because he is a supporter of the health-care industry. Hevesi is one of four Democrats vying to become the next mayor.
Hevesi, whose mother-in-law is a resident at the center, told the audience about how his family was affected by the Holocaust.
Hevesi’s father left Budapest, Hungary before World War II, but wanted to return when the Nazis invaded his homeland. Hevesi’s grandfather, a rabbi, told his son to stay in America.
Fifty-five members of Hevesi’s family died in the Holocaust, but because his grandfather had advised his son to remain in the United States, Alan Hevesi was born in Queens instead of the Budapest ghetto.
“Our obligation is to never forget, but that is not enough,” Hevesi said.
“We have to observe our principles of freedom of religion, separation of church and state, security for the state of Israel and tolerate no bigotry of any kind,” he said.
Rabbi Ben-Sorek led the service after Hevesi’s speech, explaining that Jews light a candle on the anniversary of a loved one’s death.
“Because we cannot light 6 million candles, we light six,” Ben-Sorek said. Candle-lighters included members of the center’s board of directors, Hevesi and a friend from France.
Dorris Stern lit a candle in memory of the 1.5 million children under the age of 16 who died during the Holocaust.
Trudy and Joseph Schwarz lit a candle in honor of the mothers. Esther and Albert Tietz, the son of the center’s founder, lit a candle in memory of the fathers.
Hans and Hella Hammelbacher lit one in honor of the rabbis, teachers, and scholars. George Berlstein, chairman of the center’s board of directors, lit a candle in memory of the Warsaw Ghetto fighters and others who resisted the Nazis.
Hevesi lit a candle for the martyrs and partisans who tried to save their family and friends and Andre Louis of France lit a seventh candle in honor of the brave, non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 138.
