World Jewish Congress wrote up a recap of our Jewish Rescuers Citation ceremony in New York City, in which we honored Jewish rescuers and their families for their valiant efforts saving other Jews from murder at the hands of the Nazis.

Scroll down to read the story or click to read it on WorldJewishCongress.org.

NEW YORK - B’nai B’rith International and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jews who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust (JRJ) on Monday presented citations to a number of Jewish individuals to honor their valiant efforts to save the lives of others. 
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“Thousands of Jews were saved by other Jews across Europe during the Holocaust. Many of these rescuers, rather than flee to ensure their own safety, chose to help other Jews escape,” noted B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin.

“It is critical that the effort of Jewish rescuers is remembered and we commit ourselves to sharing these stories that remind us all of the unique role these Jewish rescuers played in our history. There are so many individual stories. It falls on us to make sure these stories are told to personalize what happened.”

Among those honored was Dr. Hadassah Bimko-Rosensaft, whose posthumous Jewish Rescuer's Citation was presented to her son, World Jewish Congress General Counsel and Holocaust survivor advocate Menachem Rosensaft.

“Bnai Brith should be commended for this particular initiative, among so many others,” Rosensaft said in accepting the citation on behalf of his mother. “How overdue the recognition of Jewish rescuers is. The fact that they have been ignored is a stain on the work of remembrance that has been performed by the various Holocaust institutions…. The Jews in the ghettos and the camps and the forests who risked their lives to help others deserve no less recognition [than righteous gentiles].”

After Dr. Bimko-Rosensaft’s first husband and 5.5-year-old son were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, she went on to save the lives of women inmates at that camp and later, as a doctor at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, kept 149 children alive, scouring the camp for young people in need of the food and medicine she managed to scavenge. Following the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Dr. Bimko-Rosensaft was appointed head of the camp’s medical service by the American military and worked to save as many of the ill and malnourished prisoners as possible.

At gatherings of survivors over the course of next half century, said Menachem Rosensaft, his mother was told over and over: “You don’t remember me but you saved my life.”

Another honored rescuer was Ben Zion Kalb, who saved about 1,000 fellow Polish Jews, mainly infants, youngsters and teenagers, via a land route and a smuggling operation into Slovakia and whose son Mark told attendees at yesterday’s ceremony that the Jewish “rescuers themselves deserved something better than to be forgotten, having shown extraordinary courage.”

The Jewish Rescuer’s Citation was established in 2011 to pay honor and respect to Jewish rescue of other Jews during the Shoah. To date, more than 170 Jewish heroes have been honored for their daring rescue activities in Germany, France, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Holland.

The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL-JNF) held, for the 15th consecutive year, a unique joint Holocaust commemoration ceremony on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah).

This is the only event dedicated annually to commemorating the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust. About 300 border patrol cadets—who provided an honor guard—and 300 students participated in the ceremony together with Jewish rescuers and survivors. The ceremony took place at the B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest “Scroll of Fire” Plaza at 10:00 a.m. Israel time.
 
This year, the ceremony was dedicated to the rescue efforts of Walter Suskind and the Jewish caregivers who saved some 600 children at the crèche (day care center) in Amsterdam.

Scroll down to find a complete round-up of links, a magazine spread and photos from the event. 

For further details, please contact: B’nai B’rith World Center Director Alan Schneider at 052-5536441 or aschneider@bnaibrith.org.

J. The New News of Northern California ran a piece outlining the issues Germany's Jewish community will face in the future. B'nai B'rith is mentioned at the top of the article for its part in organizing a campaign to build a memorial to those who survived the Holocaust because of the Kindertransport.

Scroll down to read the full story or click the button below to read it on JWeekly.com.

Several weeks ago, at a luncheon in Frankfurt, Germany, I saw firsthand one of the major challenges facing today’s German Jewish community. The occasion was the launch of a campaign to build a memorial to the children who escaped on the Kindertransport to England. One of the fortunate children was brought from California to speak at the event organized by B’nai B’rith. She is now 94 years old.

And that hints at a serious challenge. We are nearing the moment when there will be no more eyewitnesses to the horrors of the Holocaust. And as that day approaches, there is growing concern that Germany — which has owned up to its responsibility for the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others — will feel that it has completed its obligation.

Many younger Germans do not believe that they should bear the burden of earlier generations. They were not perpetrators. At the same time, there are growing voices within German society to pay greater attention to other examples of mass human suffering — from the plight of Germans who endured oppressive Communist rule to the immense refugee crisis stemming from the Middle East. Germany’s sense of direct responsibility has strengthened its friendship with Israel and led to a deep commitment to combat anti-Semitism in Germany and a rebuilding of Jewish life in Germany. There is great concern about what will happen as that sense of responsibility fades into history.

I was in Germany to assess the current situation facing German Jewry and specifically to meet with activists and leaders of organizations addressing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity, including the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. I was based in Berlin, a remarkably vibrant and fascinating city where most of the key organizations taking on these issues are headquartered. After 28 meetings in six days — including people from government officials to grassroots activists — I came away inspired by the remarkable dedication of the groups’ Jewish and non-Jewish leaders. Indeed, a distinguishing feature of the activist community in Germany is the number of non-Jews who are fighting these fights because they feel a deep sense of historic responsibility — that Jews must never again be abandoned.

There are, to be sure, internal community challenges. The community, which was 500,000 strong before the Holocaust, had only about 27,000 Jews until the German government made a concerted effort to rebuild Jewish life by opening its doors from 1990 through 2005 to Jews interested in moving to Germany. The overwhelming majority of newcomers were Russian-speaking Jews, and today there are some 100,000 official members of the German Jewish community, living in dozens of cities. Absorbing such a large number of newcomers relative to the existing population and providing them with the services and education they seek and need has been a major communal priority.

Layered on top are the external challenges. Anti-Semitism is a serious concern in Germany. And BDS is spreading — in the universities, arts community, churches and beyond. But I was also struck by how different the situation felt compared with France, where I made a similar visit two years ago. In France, the question I heard most frequently was: Does French Jewry have a future? France was witnessing a dramatic acceleration in aliyah to Israel and the community was feeling nearly overwhelmed by the serious threats directed against the Jewish community. Ironically, in Germany with its history, while the trends are disturbing and anti-Israel forces are gaining strength, Jews do not ask about their future.

At the same time, I worry about three longer-term trends over the next 10 to 15 years.

One is the prospect that the taboo against open anti-Semitism — directly related to that sense of German historic responsibility for protecting Jews — will be lifted as collective memory fades.

The second is the rise of the far right, which includes blatantly anti-Semitic elements — with the near-term prospect that the upcoming German election will result in the far right AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) Party winning seats in the Bundestag (the German Parliament) for the first time.

The third is the prospect that Germany’s generally moderate Muslim population (overwhelmingly of Turkish background) will — under the influence of growing radicalism in Turkey — become less tolerant and more susceptible to anti-Semitic attitudes. At the same time, there’s a possibility that the nearly 1 million refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who have been welcomed into Germany since 2015 will not be successfully integrated, resulting in extremist views taking root within pockets of this population as has happened in France.

These are real concerns and modern German history has taught us the danger of not heeding warning signs. Fortunately, in addition to exceptionally dedicated and capable activist leaders in Germany, and a German government that deserves credit for its actions aimed at accepting responsibility for the past and absorbing the lessons for the future, there are a number of visionary American-based foundations that are committed to helping support the best and most strategic efforts aimed at securing the future for Germany’s Jews.
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The people on the front lines in Germany are very grateful for the support and sense of solidarity from abroad. Vigilance is indeed required. As one person I met commented, “Germany is at the peak of its economic performance and its friendship with Israel. It can only go in the wrong direction.” And another, discussing his fears about anti-Semitism within German society simply said, “Just because they don’t speak doesn’t mean they don’t believe.”

The Parthenon in Huntington, W. Va., wrote about B’nai Sholom Temple participating in "Unto Every Person There Is A Name."

B'nai B'rith International is the official North American sponsor of "Unto Every Person, There Is a Name" ceremonies.

Scroll down to read the story or click the button below to read it on MarshallParthenon.com.

The Jerusalem Post ran a photo and caption on the B'nai B'rith World Center and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jews who Rescued Fellow Jews During the Holocaust (JRJ) conferring their joint "Jewish Rescuer's Citation" upon Naftali Backenroth-Bronicki who risked his life saving Jews from deportation and extermination during the Holocaust in Drohobych, Poland.

​Check out the photo and caption below. 

It’s the Holocaust rescue story that often goes untold—Jews who put their lives on the line to save their fellow Jews.

Shmuil Markowitz Pevzner (1912-1991), a Jew who saved 300 children from the Druskininkai Soviet Pioneers Camp during Operation Barbarossa, was honored by B’nai B’rith World Center and the Jewish National Fund at their 14th annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony on Thursday at the B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest Scroll of Fire Plaza in Jerusalem.

“We are unique in the sense that we are the only ceremony that recognizes Jewish rescuers on an annual basis,” said B’nai B’rith Director Alan Schneider in an interview with Tazpit Press Service (TPS). “It’s not an area of strong academic research, though that is something we would like to encourage.”

Born in Belorussia, Pevzner served as director of the Polish troupe at the Druskininkai camp in Lithuania. He brought the 300 children—150 of whom were Jewish—by train to the Soviet Far East while under German aerial attack. Pevzner established a home for the children in the Udmurtia Republic, where he cared for them through extreme weather conditions until the end of the war.
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Pevzner was represented by his son, Dr. Mark Pevzner, and grandson, Boris Pevzner.
According to Schneider, while commemorations in previous years have included rescuers from Germany, France, Slovakia, and Eastern Europe, this is the first year the organization is recognizing a Russian.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed every year on Jan. 27, the date in 1945 the allies liberated the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In addition to U.S. observances, B’nai B’rith International commemorated this significant day across Latin America.

In Argentina Human Rights Office Director Claudio Avruj, who is also a former B’nai B’rith executive vice president of District 23, held a memorial service in the Square of the Shoah in Buenos Aires. A memorial statue for the Righteous Among Nations was inaugurated in the square. Keynote speakers included Avruj and Minister of Culture Pablo Avelluto. Other government officials and leaders of the Jewish community attended the event as well. Argentine President Mauricio Macri hosted a delegation of Holocaust survivors in the presidential house, Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires the day before.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Santiago held an event that was attended by more than 300 people. Acting president of Chile, Jorge Burgos and Leon Cohen, president of B’nai B’rith Latin America and the Jewish community in Chile, spoke at the commemoration ceremony. Writer Maria Angelica Puga gave a touching tribute to her great grandmother, Maria Edwards. Edwards, who rescued Jewish children throughout the Holocaust from the Rothschild Hospital in Paris, is the only Chilean recognized by the Righteous Among Nations. Puga accepted the Light and Memory Award in Edwards’ honor.

Uruguay’s congress held a special session commemorating the day, and acting Foreign Minister Jose Luis Cancela, Israeli Ambassador Nina Ben Ami and hundreds of others attended the event. President Tabare Vazquez gave a speech that was broadcast across the country on the radio and several television channels. In his speech Vazquez stated, "Our remembrance of Holocaust victims is also a commitment to fight for a real never more, and a commitment to fight for a better future, which was also dreamed by those who perished in this tragedy."

Brazil held several events across the country in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. The commemoration ceremony in Brasilia took place in Colegio de Abogados (Lawyer’s Hall), and was attended by congressmen, ambassadors, B’nai B’rith Brazil President Abraham Goldstein and other Jewish community leaders. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was abroad at the time, had a message read aloud to attendees at the ceremony by Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner. In her message Rousseff stated, "This day brings to our memory the most horrifying moment in history. We want to join our hearts with those who lost their families in the Shoah. We will always keep fighting in order to avoid that the horror of the Shoah never happens again."

In Ecuador, the University of the Americas hosted an event by the U.N. office, the Israeli Embassy, Albert Einstein College and the local Jewish community. Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia held special congressional sessions observing the day, and several members and leaders of the Jewish community attended these commemoration ceremonies. A minute of silence was observed across Panama, and all radio stations fell silent, and throughout the day, national television channels showed documentaries about the Holocaust.

Paraguay also held a special session in congress and Israeli Ambassador Peleg Lewi and several other ambassadors came to the event. President of the Permanent Commission of the Congress, Senator Adolfo Wiens, gave a speech on the Holocaust and human dignity. “This remembrance is a warning against hate, discrimination and racism,” Wiens said.