Jewish Vets Host Holocaust Committee Dinner, Awards

LANGHORNE, PA — The Fegelson-Young-Feinberg Post 697 Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. held their 5th Annual Holocaust Committee Appreciation Dinner and Essay Competition Awards recently.

The event was held Nov. 14. at the Bella Tori restaurant in Langhorne. Allan Silverberg, chairman of the Holocaust Remembrance Program, greeted the guests, including the three students who wrote this year’s winning essays.

Those students were Makenna Buchinski, of Our Lady of Grace School in Penndel, Nicole Chu, of Cinnaminson Middle School in Cinnaminson, N.J., and Claire King, of St. Paul’s School in Princeton, N.J.

The students received citations from Post 697, state representatives Frank Ferry and Tommy Tomlinson, and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick along with an American Flag that had flown over the state capitol. Each also received a cash award.

The essay competition is open to students who attend the nationally and internationally acclaimed Holocaust Remembrance Education Program, sponsored by Post 697. The program is a cost-free multimedia program made available to public, private and parochial schools, institutions of higher learning, retirement communities, libraries, and houses of worship throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware.

The event’s featured speaker was Danny Goldsmith, a Holocaust survivor, who shared his story while emphasizing that this is the last generation that will be able to hear directly from those who survived the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis.

In his comments, Silverberg remembered a fellow Jewish World War II veteran, Bernie Lens, who died last year. Lens’s participation in the Holocaust Remembrance Program provided a unique perspective since he was among the first liberators of the concentration camps, Silverberg said.

The group noted that New Jersey currently is one of only 10 states that require education about the Holocaust and other genocides for students in K-12. In Pennsylvania, Act 70, enacted in 2014, encourages schools to teach the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights violations but does not mandate it nor provide additional funding for it.

To schedule, a free Holocaust Remembrance Education Program you may call 267-573-9697.

Photos courtesy Fegelson-Young-Feinberg Post 697