A deeply moving virtual Yom HaShoah program for the faculty and students of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls was held on Zoom on Tuesday, April 21.
In her opening message, Mrs. Elisheva Kaminetsky, Principal, Religious Studies, commented that Yom HaShoah, and subsequently Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, are crucial days for us as individuals and as a nation. They give us the opportunity to pause and reflect, focusing and learning from our past.
After six candles were lit by Mrs. Bluma Drebin, Principal, General Studies, and her father Rabbi Thumin, faculty members Mrs. Beate Menchel, Mrs. Barbara Martin, Mrs. Suzy Libin, and Mrs. Sheila Liebtag, and Ninth Grader Lea Septimus in memory of loved ones and the children killed during the Shoah, a video presentation was shown of Mrs. Rena Quint, a survivor who lost her entire family during the Holocaust.
A choice of sessions provided to SKA students during the day offered topics such as Why I Learn About the Holocaust, Modern Day Amalek, Halachic Questions During the Shoah, and many others. An original Holocaust Journal, written and “distributed” by the Ninth Grade class under the supervision of Mrs. Liebtag, shared the thoughts of the students.
Our thanks go to Rabbi Yosef Zakutinsky, SKA Director of Student Programming, and Mrs. Yafa Storch for organizing this virtual but so meaningful program. As faculty member Rabbi Gavriel Sanders expressed in his thanks, “This was one of the most stirring of programs I can recall. In contrast to all the isolation, I felt very connected to all on the call – and to the ones who were before.”
