Fighting Hate, Across Cultures and Generations

[Gimel]

Considering this is a topic that has been discussed here, I decided it would fit here better than on GD.

By COREY KILGANNON

Published: January 14, 2004


David Gewirtzman and Jacqueline Murekatete stood before a restless group of students at Great Neck North High School, waiting to tell their stories. They seemed to be an unlikely pair speaking on what seemed an unlikely topic - genocide - for a group of teenagers munching on sandwiches and rustling snack wrappers.


By the time they had finished, however, the only sound that could be heard in the room was the faint hum of a radiator.

Mr. Gewirtzman, a 75-year-old retired pharmacist who lives in Great Neck, N.Y., on Long Island, survived the Holocaust by spending almost two years burrowed with other members of his family under a pigsty on a Polish farm.

Now, he visits local schools, hoping that by telling of his experiences, he can educate students and help to prevent a killing like the Holocaust from happening again.

When he spoke at a high school in Queens two years ago, Ms. Murekatete, then a student, was in the audience. She said his story had made her burst into tears. She wrote him a note relating her own horrible story, which took place in Rwanda, in central Africa, in 1994. She narrowly escaped being hacked to death by a rival tribe. Her family - both parents and all six siblings - did not.

"I finally found someone who understood what I went through because he went through the same thing," said Ms. Murekatete, now 19 and a freshman at the State University at Stony Brook.


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"She's black, I'm white; she's young, I'm old; she's African and Christian and I'm a Jew from Poland. Yet we're like brother and sister, because we're bound by the common trauma of our experience and a common history of pain and suffering and persecution."

Now they appear regularly together, hoping that they can bring experience and relevance to a harsh subject. But neither expected the impression they would have on each other, and how deep their friendship would grow with the only apparent bond being death.

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Read the complete article

[Erica Cartman]

1. That is so beautiful.

It reminds me of the good things that go on in the world as well.

It reminds me that Dr. Martin Luther King would have turned 75 tomorrow.

It reminds me of years ago when I worked as the Assistant Executive Director of Jewish Family & Children's Services. I was late one day that I had to be on time because of a meeting and so I called a cab. The cab driver was African-American. As I got into the cab, I gave him the address w/o mentioning what the building was. We got closer and at the next red light, he turned around, smiled and said, "Now, why didn't you tell me you were going to Jewish Family & Children's Services? I thought the address sounded familiar!" I felt very badly, but I was so glad to be able to tell him that I didn't want to make the ride uncomfortable in case he didn't feel too kindly toward Jews. He said, "Now, why would you think that?" Then, he talked to me about the 1960's and his days in the South with Jews from the North. He told me he would never forget it. I was crying by the time I got out of the cab. BTW, I was late for my meeting after all - but, that was worth it!

[Gimel]

2. Thanks for relating this

:-)