Honoring Alabama's Holocaust Survivors; UDI Conference Call
HONORING OUR SURVIVORS
A unique event is coming up -- one that Birmingham Jewish Federation President Jimmy Filler has called "one of the most meaningful in our community's history."
"L'Chaim -- Celebrating the Lives and Legacies of Our Holocaust Survivors" will be held Sunday, August 28th from 5-6:45 pm in the Temple Beth-El Cultural Center, 2179 Highland Ave. L'Chaim, is Hebrew, meaning "to life." It is being sponsored by the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center (BHEC). Tickets for the dinner event are $36 and can be purchased online by going to the below link or sending a check to BHEC, P.O. Box 130805, Birmingham, AL 35213-0805. (In Jewish tradition, the number 18 and multiples of 18 are associated with "life.") For more information, call Ann Mollengarden at 967-9581. "We hope everyone who can will come. It will be a wonderful event -- a true celebration of life," said Jimmy. "We are grateful to these extraordinary people for all they have done for our community and for the remarkable work of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center." COURAGEOUS & GENEROUS Our Alabama Holocaust survivors have been courageous and generous in the telling and re-telling of their painful personal experiences during the Holocaust. These stories are important and powerful, especially when told by the men and women who can say, "This happened to me." Over the last eight years, our Alabama survivors have told their stories in person at more than 125 schools, libraries, and community centers across the state. They re-tell and re-live their emotional past so that the young people of Alabama can learn the truth about what happened in the Holocaust. At present we have 20 Holocaust survivors living in Alabama. Through survivors' stories, young people begin to comprehend the horrors of genocide. They learn that genocide is the culmination of an escalating process that begins with simple bias. They see that they can make a difference in the world by the personal choices they make when they encounter prejudice, discrimination and cruelty. IMPACTING LIVES The BHEC invites the public to attend this special evening to honor those Holocaust survivors who have shared their personal stories, impacting the lives of so many young people in our state. The BHEC was created in 2003 by a group of interested members of the Birmingham community, Holocaust survivors and members of the already existing Alabama Holocaust Commission. The BHEC, which is the hub of Holocaust education and programming in our city, is one of the 32 agencies and programs funded by dollars raised through The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign.
CONFERENCE CALL ON PALESTINIAN UN PUSH
Representatives from The Birmingham Jewish Federation and other Jewish Federations will participate in a conference call Wednesday with Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (pictured here) to discuss the proposed Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence and other Mideast issues.
The call has been convened by the Israel Action Network, a joint initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish Council for Public Affairs, two of the 32 agencies funded by The BJF Campaign. The Israel Action Initiative helps local communities develop and implement strategies on issues related to Israel. Ayalon will provide latest details on the Palestinians' unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), now scheduled to be introduced at the United Nations Sept. 20. Israel and its friends abroad are deeply concerned over this push by the Palestinians and see it as an attempt by the Palestinians to bypass direct negotiations with Israel. Participating in this call is one more reflection of The BJF's ongoing commitment to helping Israel anyway we can as the Palestinians and their allies continue attempts to isolate and weaken the Jewish state.
Click for more on the Palestinian UDI.
