Local Rabbi's Special Simsbury Library Program Rescheduled: UPDATE

SIMSBURY, CT — The Simsbury Public Library on Monday, Feb. 2, is hosting a very special guest for a remarkable program commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The library, located at 725 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury, will host local Rabbi Emeritus Philip Lazowski, who will be joined by co-author Suzanne Pnkes and educator Stu Abrams.

The program will take place Monday, Feb. 2, from 7 to 8 p.m., though weather might impact whether the event takes place or not, as a snowstorm is expected to hit Sunday into Monday.

The original Jan. 26 date was pushed back due to the snowstorm expected to hit Sunday into Monday.

The trio is expected to discuss their new book,"Transforming Darkness Into Light," which is slated to be released on Thursday, Jan. 22, in hardcover.

Lazowski, 95, served as a rabbi since 1954 at Hartford’s Congregation Beth Sholom Synagogue, Bloomfield’s Beth Hillel Synagogue, and now as Rabbi Emeritus of The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford.

But it is his wartime experience as a child that shows just how miraculous his life is.

A native of Poland in a section of Europe that is now part of Belarus, Lazowski spent three years starting in 1941 hiding in the woods to avoid capture by the Nazis.

According to a library announcement, he escaped from a second-story window to hide in the woods. Lazowski's mother pushed him from the window to flee the Nazis.

Lazowski, who was 11, spent the duration of the war in hiding while his mother and two younger siblings were eventually murdered by the Nazis.

Incredibly, he managed to survive the war and left for the U.S. after the war, resettling in Hartford, where he embarked on his rabbinical career.

Monday, he is expected to reflect "on faith, friendship, and education as the tools needed to confront hatred and strengthen resilient identities—offering a timely roadmap for the future of Holocaust education," wrote the library.

In the decades since his miraculous escape, he has spoken to thousands of people around the world, educating them about the dangers of hate, wrote the library.

He has also served as chaplain for Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living, the Hartford Police Department, and the Connecticut State Senate and is the author of over a dozen books.

For more information on the program, along with registration information, click on this link.