Yom HaShoah Program

Holocaust Remembrance Day

2009 Program Highlights

Kol Israel is well known for our superb Yom Ha Shoah programs and this year was no exception.  Our speaker was Ann Kirchner, author of  SALA’S GIFT and daughter of survivor Sala  Kirschener.  She explained that she always knew her mother survived the Holocaust  but knew little else about her experience.

Then, before Sala went into the hospital for surgery, she gave Ann a box of letters and journal entries chronicling her life, and the lives of many other Jews, during the war. Ann learned that her mother had been a slave in one of the

labor camps, and it was her hard work that enabled her to survive. The stories of Jewish slave labor during World War II traditionally has received less attention than life in the ghettos and concentration camps. But in SALA'S GIFT,

Ann Kirschner, using those letters, tells her mother's story and of other men and women forced into labor under the Nazis.

      Many, many thanks to Jack Saban who puts so much time, effort and research into always providing us with moving and meaningful experiences.  He somehow always manages to focus on different aspects and give us a much deeper understanding of the Holocaust.

Sala's Gift my Mothers Holocaust Story By Ann Kirschner
( The Letters ) that Ann Kirshner draws on to tell her mother's story stand as evidence of humanity in the face of terrible conditions and of religious faith and ritual that persisted despite the Nazi campaign to eliminate Jews.

2008 Program Highlights