Photo Courtesy of Max Branigan
Marchers are led by the Scouts and drummer Rafi Colton-Max in a March of Remembrance on April 19 as part of the 38th annual South Orange-Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service.
By Shanee Frazier, Staff Writer
MAPLEWOOD & SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Coming together in the spirit of unity and advocacy, the 38th annual South Orange-Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service took place Sunday, April 19, at St. Joseph’s Church in Maplewood.
This year’s event featured guest speaker Marsha Kreuzman, a Holocaust survivor, as well as the presentation of the Sister Rose Thering Holocaust Education Award to the Rev. Lawrence Frizzell of Seton Hall University.
The day’s activities started with a March of Remembrance to honor those who were forced to endure death marches from prison and concentration camps during the Holocaust.
The service started with a traditional shofar blast from Margie Freeman and Zack Arenstein of the Kol Rina Independent Minyan in South Orange. The shofar is traditionally used in Judaism as a call to prayer, and for this service it was also used as a call to action against acts of violence or persecution, which was the theme of the day.
The shofar blast was followed by a procession of local religious and government leaders into the church sanctuary, and a processional hymn aptly titled, “We Are Called,” urging congregants in song to show love and act justly toward their fellow man.
Once the processional had ended, Father James Worth, pastor of Saint Joseph’s Church, gave a call to worship.
“We remember today because we can. We remember today because we must,” Worth said. “We must speak and we must think so that we can honor the heroes who were survivors and those who helped others survive.”
A lighting of the chai candles ceremony, memorial candles for those who died in the Holocaust, was led by the Rev. Terry Richardson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of South Orange.
Chai candles adorned the ends of all the pews in the sanctuary, and this year’s candle-lighters were Joanne Barbella Steffel, representing her father Joseph Barbella, who served in the U.S. 11th Armored Division, which liberated Mauthausen; and Helene Schwartz, wife of the late Norman Schwartz, a longtime member of the Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Committee.
As the candles were lit at each row, the service attendees stood and lit the candles they were given when they entered the church.
Barbara Wind, director of the Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest, and a longtime member of the Interfaith Committee, introduced Marsha Kreuzman, the guest speaker for the service.
Kreuzman’s presentation began with an NBC video clip that detailed her teenage years in concentration camps and how she was reunited more than 50 years later with Joseph Barbella, one of the American soldiers who liberated Mauthausen and helped to save her life. Following the video, Kreuzman held up pictures of herself and Barbella meeting for the first time since she was liberated.
“I survived, but I have no idea how I survived,” Kreuzman said.
Kreuzman shared her harrowing survival story with the rapt audience, explaining the conditions she faced prior to and during her time in the five different concentration camps and the Krakow ghetto in which she was forced to live.
“I was called ‘bloody Jew’ often, because I was a redhead and I was Jewish,” Kreuzman said. “On Jan. 15, 1945, we went to Auschwitz and walked for five days and four nights without stopping.”
Kreuzman said that they knew that if they stopped they would meet certain death, because they would freeze to death from the snow and nobody would be willing to take them in.
“I often wished for the sun so I could see the bodies being covered by snow to cover up the number of those who had died,” Kreuzman said.
After her liberation, Kreuzman spent some time in England before connecting with an American relative on the day before Thanksgiving in 1952. She went on to marry a fellow Holocaust survivor.
Following Kreuzman’s speech, “Here I Am Lord” was sung by Voices in Harmony of Essex County, Mariella Garcia of St. Joseph’s Church, Carley Margolis and Talia Adelson of Temple Beth Shalom of Livingston, Cantor Rebecca Moses of Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel of South Orange, and Cantor Perry Fine of Temple Beth Shalom, who also served as the conductor.
Joshua Cohen, New Jersey regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, spoke about why people must take action on issues of injustice.
After sharing with the audience statistics on the increase of anti-Semitic acts between the years of 2013 and 2014, Cohen urged the audience to take action.
“The question is whether we, as a society, will respond with rejection or accommodation,” Cohen said.
The Sister Rose Thering Holocaust Education Award was presented to Father Lawrence Frizzell, director of the Jewish-Christian Studies Program at Seton Hall University.
Frizzell was presented his award by colleague Father John Morley, professor emeritus of Seton Hall University. Morley spoke of his admiration for Frizzell, calling him “a great scholar and a great educator who shares his knowledge with the institute at Seton Hall, as well as many others.”
Morley also spoke about a program that Frizzell runs every year for the faculty at Seton Hall during spring break, educating them on Holocaust-related issues.
“His scholarship is unparalleled, and so is his desire to educate others,” Morley said.
Upon accepting his award, Frizzell said he recognizes that he is a part of a very strong team of students in the master’s program and other department faculty who work with him to promote education and awareness.
“Commemorating the past is only the first step,” Frizzell said. “Moving toward nonviolent action is the next step.”
Adorning the walls of the church was artwork created by the students of Ellen Hark, a middle school fine arts teacher in the district. In an interview with the News-Record, Hark explained how she chose to link Holocaust education with art for her students.
After reading the book “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a collection of art and poetry made by children who survived the Holocaust, Hark had her sixth-graders create butterfly paintings, each one featuring an original poem.
Hark had her seventh-graders do self-portraits inspired by the works of Kathe Kollwitz, whose husband was a doctor in war-torn Berlin. And her eighth-grade students made sculptures based a large sculpture of a hand from the Miami Holocaust Memorial.
Altogether Hark’s students created approximately 350 pieces, many of which were displayed during the service.
“Holocaust education has changed, and the students who are in school now will be some of the last to hear the stories from survivors,” Hark said. “If the story isn’t told, what will happen?”