[NOTE: This blog post is written by current OJCS Parent and member of our Board of Trustees, Howie Fremeth.]
All other nations that tried to kill us have perished. Yet we have survived. Look at you.
As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, these words from Marie Doduck to OJCS Grades 5-8 students hit me right in the kishkes.
Learning about the Holocaust has always been important to me for as long as I can remember. My bubbie towards the end of her life chose me to share details that she didn’t tell anyone else – even her own children – and help her document her story so that it can be passed down to future generations. Now as a parent, I am only beginning to struggle with what I tell my kids about our family history. So when I had the opportunity to attend this week’s Yom Hashoah Assembly, I knew I had to be there to both observe and show my daughter how much it means to me.
Born in 1935, Marie Doduck was just five years old when the Nazis conquered her hometown of Brussels and was forced into hiding until the end of the war. Her survival, in her own words, was thanks to a mixture of good luck and the goodwill of many non-Jews who took her in. In 1947, she came to Canada as part of the Jewish Canadian Congress’ Orphan War Project that helped foster Jewish children who had lost their parents in the Holocaust.
For more than an hour, the students had an opportunity to hear Marie’s story. She was particularly keen to spend most of the time answering questions. I was amazed by how much more the students knew about the history of the Second World War and the Holocaust than I thought they would. They wanted to know everything from details about her daily life routine to her views on the Nazis.
But it was one student’s question that folded the past into the present: What do you think about the massacre of Israelis on October 7th and the current rise of antisemitism in Canada?
Marie didn’t hesitate in her response. She said she thinks she’s reliving what happened to her some 80 years ago. She recalled that the violence began with words, so we must call out hate speech before it turns violent. But she did say there was one crucial difference from then and now.
Today the Jewish people have a country to call our own. She told the students that if Israel existed before the Holocaust, that’s where European Jews would have gone for sanctuary. We now have a place to go if we must leave Canada – a thought that none of us would’ve even imagined a few months ago. But she also said we won’t leave or turn the other cheek like we did when she was a girl in Belgium. We will fight back both here in Canada and in Israel.
She reminded the students that Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Her message paralleled something I heard Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed often say in media interviews: we will win this war because we have to win the war.
I walked out of the assembly thinking how precious it is that my daughter had the opportunity to hear directly from a survivor. While I’m grateful they were able to meet, my daughter was not even five when my bubbie passed away. Thankfully we have a self-published photo album recounting her family history and a translation of her diary – written in a mixture of Yiddish, Russian and Polish with a few of her own drawings throughout the pages – that offers a first-person account of her survival. Yet none of this can compete with hearing directly from a survivor who can also situate the past into the present.
At a time when protesters distort the Holocaust, chant the genocidal “River to the Sea” slogan and call on Jews to “go back to Europe,” Marie’s story empowers the great grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. It offers meaning for why we continue our traditions – despite the trauma, the costs, and threats we face as they are reminded every day when they see police parked outside their school.
I know there will be a time soon when we won’t have any more living survivors. Until that day comes, it is incumbent on all of us to hear their stories and ensure that young Canadians from all faiths and backgrounds share in this opportunity.
Before I conclude, I want to thank our incredible staff and faculty – especially Michael Washerstein – who organized this special experience for our children.
[Back to Jon:]
I look forward to sharing results from the Annual Parent Survey later this month. If you have NOT yet contributed and you want your results included, please fill yours out by Monday, May 15th. Please and thank you!
We began with Yom Ha’Shoah, where our Grade 8 students, led by our Shinshinim Idan and Noa, Morah Ruthie and Rabbi Rotenberg, prepared a powerful assembly for our older students which incorporated presentation, liturgy, music and a candle-lighting. I was so impressed by how seriously our Grade 8 students took their responsibility and by how seriously our students took the assembly. It was an appropriate tribute to such a solemn day on our calendar.
It was Grade 7’s turn this week – with huge help from Morah Ruthie, Noa and Idan – to lead our school in an incredible Yom Ha’Zikaron assembly. Hereto, they incorporated presentation, liturgy, music, dance, and a candle-lighting. It was extra special to have had a chance to hear from our slightly ad-hoc “choir” who had a chance to perform both at the community’s commemoration as well as our own. We were also blessed to hear from a special guest, Col. Amos Nachmani, 
the Israeli Defence Attaché to Canada, who shared some remarkably personal words to help our students better understand and connect to this important holiday. This is one of the true blessings of being a Jewish day school in our nation’s capital.