8 Holocaust Survivors Honored At Orange County Chanukah Event

NEWPORT BEACH, CA – Eight Holocaust survivors were honored Sunday at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life's public menorah lighting and Chanukah celebration at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

The honorees, some mere children during the horrific era, were paid tribute for being beacons of hope for eight decades since "Kristallnacht," the November 1938 Holocaust onset, also called “Night of Broken Glass," in which German Nazis torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews.

“These heroic and determined individuals not only survived the darkness, they went on to thrive and illuminate the world around them," said Rabbi Reuven Mintz, who introduced the eight: Claude Abraham; Tova Cohen; Jacob Eisenbach; Ildiko Good; Marta Lightner; Sam Silberberg; Jack Pariser; and Dora Zipper.

The survivors' life stories shared included heart-wrenching tales of time spent in labor camps and ghettos, being hidden by non-Jews, who risked death for doing so, living in holes, scrounging for food and escape under harrowing circumstances.

"They came to the United States to build successful families, businesses, careers and legacies, showing by example that the best response to hate is love, the best response to the desecration of the human and divine spirit is a greater devotion to faith and a higher code of behavior, the best response to evil is to increase acts of goodness and kindness,” Mintz said.

"Each survivor was accompanied onto the stage by a child to light a candle, a literal and figurative passing of the torch, the continuity of their inspiring flames, from one generation to the next," Chabad officials said. "They all participated in lighting the Menorah, and then each received a memento of the occasion, a personalized Star of David Menorah."

The Festival of Lights ceremony held in Fashion Island’s Atrium Garden Court also included performances by the Tarbut v’Torah day school choir and musical group Orange Jews.

• ALSO SEE: Holiday Tree & Menorah Lightings, Parades & Events: O.C. 2018

--Photo credit: Charles Weinberg