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IHE NEWS AND UPDATES
SUMMER 2021
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During the last few months IHE has engaged in exciting work, ranging from our 2021 High School Essay Contest to the Art and the Holocaust exhibit. Please find updates and information below. |
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2021 Student Essay Contest |
Even during the most difficult school year ever, we had 469 entries for our 19th annual Tribute to the Rescuers Essay Contest. Students from high schools across Nebraska wrote up to 1500 words about people who portrayed moral courage. This is the first year that we required students to choose two subjects: one from the Holocaust and another from a different time in history. Four winners were selected and awarded scholarships for 9th & 10th grade and the 11th & 12th grade categories. The essays go through a rigorous, three-part judging process made possible this year by close to 50 volunteer readers working remotely on behalf of IHE. The Essay Contest is made possible with the support of the Carl Frohm Memorial Foundation. We are so grateful to the teachers, students, volunteers, and both Harold & Linda Mann for making all of this possible.
9th and 10th Grade Category
First Place: Kiyoji Huang, Creighton Prep (José Castellanos & Liu Xiobo)
Second Place: Katherine Goerhing, Skutt (Irena Sendler & Harriet Tubman)
Third Place: Diego Vargas, Creighton Prep (Cardinal Jules Gérard Saliège & Greta Thunberg)
Honorable Mention: Hugh Strumberger, Creighton Prep (Joop Westerweel & Nelson Mandela)
11th and 12th Grade Category
First Place: Emma Alm, Marian (Johan van Hulst & Alice Paul)
Second Place: Olivia Turkel, Marian (Johan van Hulst & Van Chhuon)
Third Place: Deymi Chavez, Grand Island High (Ulma Family & Rigoberta Menchú Tum)
Honorable Mention: Avery Wright, DC West High (Mayor Loukas Karrer & Dr. Helen Chu)
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8 teachers and over 800 students participated in this year’s Art and the Holocaust program. Teachers selected pieces to be shown in the annual show, which had to be done virtually again this year. Please watch the exhibit video to the left, and learn more about the exhibit by visiting our website.
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Honoring the Memory of Cantor Leo Fettman |
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Cantor Leo Fettman passed away on April 22 at age 96. He is survived by his wife, Annette; children Jack, Aviva, Renana, and Rachel; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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In 1960, he immigrated to the United States. He met his wife, Annette, in Gary, Indiana. They moved to Madison, Wisconsin where he was a cantor and educator from 1963 until 1975. He was then hired by Beth Israel synagogue, where he served as cantor and Director of Education. He also provided kashrut supervision.
“I met Cantor Fettman in 1979 or 1980 at Beth Israel Synagogue after returning home to Omaha after college,” Don Gerber said. “At that time, Cantor Fettman was a vibrant young energetic man who was concerned with bringing "Yiddishkeit" to all that he knew. It did not matter what age you were. From very small children to the elderly, he tried to reach out to all with his warm smile, quick wit, and it goes without saying, always the very funny jokes. In truth, he was always thinking of ways to help bring Jewish education into people's lives and one way he did that was by constantly asking people to come to his home for Friday night Shabbos dinner as well as a constant willingness to help people with whatever they needed. He also helped coordinate Friday night Shabbos family UTTO dinners at the Synagogue as well. He helped so many countless people kosher their homes that we used to joke that his calling card should be: ‘Have blow torch, will travel’.
“Several times after he retired, he was requested to help the Synagogue when there was no clergy and he always graciously accepted. He was truly a giant among men and will not be forgotten. He will always be remembered for the good deeds and Mitzvahs that he did and for being the Mensch that he was.”
Cantor Fettman spoke widely about his experiences during the Holocaust. With his wife Annette always at his side, he went to countless schools and churches in Omaha as well as outside the Omaha area outside of Nebraska to educate and lecture about his first-hand experiences. “In spite of all he had been through,” Don Gerber said, “he never lost this unswerving commitment and dedication to help teach and educate.”
In his book Shoah, Journey from the Ashes, Cantor Fettman recalled:
“Am I a bitter old Jew? No. Old, perhaps, and hopefully wiser, but not bitter. Still, there are many ways in which the Holocaust affected, and continues to affect, my life. There is the memory of gnawing hunger that returns still. Not one week goes by that I do not dream I am still in a concentration camp. Am I a bitter old Jew? No, but I recognize that as a human being, it is my responsibility to make certain that the personal accounts of the survivors live on and to counter those who are trying to revise or deny the facts of the Holocaust.”
He was liberated, he told his audience, but “not free.”
“The end of World War II was not the end of the Holocaust survivors’ nightmare,” Cantor Fettman wrote. “We who survived were forced to live with memories that could never be fully described or understood. But instead of living in bitterness and hatred over the past years, many have created a record of determination and accomplishment.”
Cantor Fettman certainly did that; not only through educating countless others about the past, but by teaching the next generation to be proudly Jewish: “I remember those who so needlessly perished and speak out on their behalf,” he wrote. “And, as a cantor and a rabbi, I try to reach into the hearts of all Jews wherever they are and rekindle within them the spark of Judaism.”
Bill Schwab knew Cantor Fettman during his days at Beth Israel Center in Madison, Wisconsin:
“I remember when he gathered all the Talmud Torah students to teach us a new tune for Ayeh Mkom K’vodo in the Kedusha, explaining how the meaning was enhanced by placing the question at the beginning of the phrase rather than in the middle. He then had us practice the melody multiple times. During Shabbat, we were brought upstairs for Jusaf, which wasn’t typical in those days because our fidgety presence was felt too disruptive to the expect solemnity of the service. When it was time for the Kedusha, Cantor turned to us and we joined him in busting out the new tune. I recall him beaming with approval. We have maintained that melody here ever since. The warmth of that moment is part of what makes Musaf feel meaningful to me. It is a special thing to recall a man of substance, who made a lasting contribution that has been heard, sung and enjoyed by thousands of people over the decades as they more deeply experience prayer. His memory is a blessing.”
“Several times after he retired,” Don Gerber said, “he was asked to help the Synagogue when there was no clergy and he always graciously accepted. He was truly a giant among men and will not be forgotten. He will always be remembered for the good deeds and Mitzvahs that he did and for being the Mensch that he was.”
Cantor Fettman was buried April 23 in Omaha. Rabbi Dembitzer of Beth Israel officiated. Memorials may be sent to the organization of your choice.
written by Annette Van de Kamp-Wright, Editor of The Jewish Press
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Honoring the Memory of Eli Modenstein |
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ELI'S OBITUARY
"Eli Modenstein’s life was sandwiched between two global pandemics. Born in Mlawa, Poland in 1918 to a religious family, Elisza was one of ten children. The family lived and worked together; at meals they talked about current events and their activities in various clubs and political parties. Eli attended religious and public schools. He appreciated his education and could do complex math in his head, which amazed everyone.
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Their family businesses included a factory—making linseed oil for paint and vegetable oil for cooking—and an iron/metal scrapyard. Eli enjoyed the work and was not afraid of hard physical labor. It made him strong and when later held captive in German concentration camps, Eli believed this strength and familiarity with hard physical work kept him alive. In September 1939, as Germany invaded Poland, the family was forced to live under German occupation. Their businesses and home were taken from them and given away. A year later, the family was moved to a former candy factory in the Jewish ghetto. Here, during a public hanging, Eli’s little sister was shot to death when Nazis fired randomly into a street crowd.
In fall 1942, the ghetto was liquidated; the able-bodied were sent by train to concentration camps and the elders to be exterminated. Eli was taken to Auschwitz in a cattle car, where he was held prisoner and performed forced labor at Buna Works for more than three years. Though he lost six of his siblings and his mother, there wasn’t a day when Eli did not believe he would survive. His father had passed earlier from a health issue.
Towards the end of the war as the Russians advanced, the Germans evacuated Auschwitz/Buna in an attempt to move the prisoners further into Germany and cover up what they were doing in the camps. While walking in the infamous “Death March”, Eli managed to slip into the crowd of onlookers and escape. He found his way into the woods where he nearly froze to death. Through sheer determination, cleverness, and great luck, he stayed alive with some help from a Polish farmer until liberated by Allied forces.
Once free, Eli returned to Mlawa to see who was still alive and found several childhood friends; he also met his future wife, Ann. Determined to leave the Soviet zone, the group of young survivors travelled together. Having no papers, they hopped freight trains, rode horses, and were arrested and released several times by local police. They once got into a bind when posing as Greeks. They were introduced to an actual Greek citizen who became quite agitated when they “proved” to authorities they were Greek by speaking a mix of Hebrew and other languages. Eli and Ann made their way to the American Zone in Germany and lived in a Displaced Person Camp until 1949 when Eli’s uncle in Lincoln signed support papers allowing them and their young daughter, born in the DP camp, to emigrate to the U.S.
In Lincoln, Eli found work at Hill and Neiden Metals and then as a house painter. Eventually, he and Ann were able to buy a modest house, gain citizenship, and have another child. Some years later, Eli heard about a new television station opening in Lincoln. Having run a film projector in the DP camp, he applied for a job and was hired by KOLN-TV as its first Film Editor/Director. He worked there until he retired. He was also a broker with Nebraska Real Estate and an entrepreneur, investing in real estate and building his own apartment complexes.
Always a natty dresser, Eli looked sharp on the dance floor where he was a wonderful partner. Whenever he attended an event or party with his wife, Ann, the women would line up to waltz with him.
Eli lived through terrifying times and had incomprehensible stories to tell. Yet he always remained a compassionate and soft-spoken man with a dry wit, who cherished his freedom and provided for his family and friends whenever needed.
Eli is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 75 years, Ann, who died in September 2020. He is survived by his daughters Faye and Susan."
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Laura Geiger has been an educator for seventeen years. She has served as an English teacher for the majority of that time, teaching both in VA and NE. She recently finished a twelve-year run at Omaha North High School to take on the responsibilities of being a Dean of Students at Burke High School, also in Omaha.
During her time as an English teacher, Geiger was also a Holocaust educator. After a trip to California to the Freedom Writer Institute and the Museum of Tolerance in 2010, Laura was inspired to bring back what she learned. She and IHE’s founding executive director, Beth Dotan, launched The Week of Understanding in Omaha Public Schools soon after. This program just finished it’s 11th year and has expanded beyond OPS to schools across the metro area and beyond.
In 2015, Geiger attended the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Educators at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where she was a part of professional development sessions for Holocaust Education. That led to becoming a USHMM Teacher Fellow in 2016. Over the next two years, she worked with USHMM staff, created lesson plans, and ended up presenting to fifty area teachers in Kearney, Nebraska. Always finding ways to continue her own learning around the Holocaust, she took part in the Holocaust by Bullets workshop in March, 2019 and followed that up with a Holocaust educational tour of Europe in July of that year.
Apart from Holocaust Education, Geiger has been heavily involved in the Freedom Writers movement. She attended the Freedom Writer Institute with Erin Gruwell and the Original Freedom Writers. She has taken part in the Freedom Writers Symposium four times, and was an Institute Counselor in the Summer of 2015.
In 2010, Geiger received the Nebraska College Preparatory Academy Teacher of the Year. And in 2012, she received the Operation Enduring Freedom Flag.
When discussing the Holocaust, Geiger says:
“The Holocaust isn't just a historical event. It is about people who have been affected for generations because of how someone felt about people who were different. The Holocaust is a lesson we must learn from that applies to all of humanity.
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“History does not repeat, but it does instruct. As the Founding Fathers debated our Constitution, they took instruction from the history they knew. Concerned that the democratic republic they envisioned would collapse, they contemplated the descent of ancient democracies and republics into oligarchy and empire. As they knew, Aristotle warned that inequality brought instability, while Plato believed that demagogues exploited free speech to install themselves at tyrants. In founding a democratic republic upon law and establishing a system of checks and balances, the Founding Fathers sought to avoid the evil that they, like the ancient philosophers, called tyranny. “
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Join us in cultivating remembrance and education surrounding the Holocaust for generations to come. |
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I have been blessed, blessed to teach at one of the finest high schools in the country, blessed to teach in a diverse community, and blessed to have made the friends I did early in my career. I began teaching at Central High School in 1998, and by the 2000-2001 school year, I was teaching seniors. I wanted to teach my students about social justice, and I began teaching Night that year. I understood from that experience that I had a lot to learn. Then, I met Beth Seldin Dotan, and the friendship and mentorship I experienced from her changed the course of my life.
I attended the first course Beth taught at the Institute for Holocaust Education just after the IHE opened its doors. Learning about the courage, creativity, and humanity of the Danish rescuers taught me that the Holocaust was not just history, that it was human beings, and I needed to understand it to become the teacher my students need. I benefited from the wisdom of Beth and the other teachers who attended that session and others and I received opportunities I could never have imagined.
Over the years I have participated in countless classes, cultural events, and meetings through the IHE and JCC. After, of course, the classes Beth taught, one of the most memorable was the focus group presentation of the Echoes and Reflections curriculum presented by the ADL, USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem, facilitated by Deborah Batiste. From that work and other work we did, Beth chose to take me to Israel in 2006 to study at Yad Vashem. Due to forces beyond our control, that event was relocated to New York, where Beth and I learned alongside other educators from all over the country. I was lucky enough to be chosen to study at Yad Vashem the following summer with a new group of educators, with Beth always by my side, teaching me more than any tour guide ever could. At the first conference we attended in 2006, Beth and I were tasked with creating an action plan for using what we learned. We audaciously planned a Holocaust Literature class and proposed it to my curriculum supervisor at Omaha Public Schools. Though our supervisor had denied all the English classes colleagues and I had previously suggested, that fall the stars aligned and my supervisor said yes. She even used her extra budget to buy some copies of Night. Since 2007, I have taught Holocaust Literature at Central High School, a course that counts as senior English, which the students have the option to choose.
Ever since the first night I met Beth Seldin Dotan, I wanted to make her proud and to help her in any way I could, to educate our community about the lessons of the Holocaust. I have tried, in every conversation about what I do with adults in my building, other teachers across the country, students, and parents to help people understand not only how important it is to educate ourselves and remember, but also to challenge ourselves to use what we learn to make our community stronger, kinder, more accepting, and more inclusive of all people.
Teaching this course taught me about history, ethics, politics, and science, about the power of words, the power of hate, and the power of love. While it is important, so important, to understand the machine of the Holocaust, I believe it is most important to understand the lives of the individuals. The Nazis and their collaborators systematically targeted and murdered six million Jews and more than five million other people. Millions of others lost so much. This is a heavy topic to teach to young people embarking on their own adult lives, so I have always made sure that they understand that everyone who lived and died, everyone who survived, everyone who rescued were human beings first and those human beings who lived created a future after experiencing the unimaginable.
My work with the IHE, the Nebraska Holocaust Education Consortium, the ADL, and Omaha’s Jewish community over the last two decades has benefited me immeasurably. Because of family responsibilities, it is time for me to train my replacement to continue the work I began at Central. For the first time in fourteen years, I will not be teaching the Holocaust Literature class in the fall, but that does not mean I will not be teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. They inform the core of who I am as a teacher and my students will always benefit from what I gained during my journey. To Beth Seldin Dotan, Alan Potash, Jessica Gall, Donna Walter, Liz Feldstern, Kael Sagheer, the Jewish community of Omaha, and all the survivors and liberators who have shared their powerful stories with me and my students, thank you.
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Third Thursday
June 17, 2021
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IHE wishes you a lovely, relaxing, and safe summer season! |
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