CANDLE LIGHTING & READING OF NAMES
Ramaz Upper School Student Volunteers
PRELUDE Heyma
Ramaz Upper School Choir
Text from Psalms Chapter 20
Music by Yitzchak Rosenthal, Arranged by Daniel Henkin
Lo V’chayil
Kol Ram Community Chorus & Ramaz Upper School Choir
Text from Zechariah Chapter 4
Music by Elliot Z. Levine
Ha’azinah
Kol Ram Community Chorus & Ramaz Upper School Choir
Text from Psalms Chapter 55
Music by Skier/Zakai, Arranged by C. Goldberg
Undzer Shtetl Brent (Es Brent)
Cantor Chaim Dovid Berson
Lyricist and Composer:
Mordechai Gebirtig, 1936
(English translation on page 5)
“A SURVIVOR’S STORY”
Luna Kaufman interviewed by Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz
Kel Maleh Rachamim
Cantor Chaim Dovid Berson
CLOSING Hatikvah
As a child in the Holocaust, Luna Kaufman experienced horrors unimaginable to most adults. Despite her trauma, she emerged committed to teaching forgiveness and reconciliation, and today she is a tireless champion of Jewish-Christian understanding owing in chief to the example set by Sister Rose Thering, a Catholic nun who led the fight to eliminate antisemitism from school textbooks. Luna dedicates her life to educating children on the Holocaust.
Luna Kaufman was born in Krakow, Poland in 1926 where she enjoyed childhood to its fullest, receiving a Catholic school education. Only 13 when the Germans invaded Poland, Luna witnessed her idyllic Kraków transformed into a festering, deathfilled ghetto. Along with her mother, Luna survived and later lived the horrors of the Ptaszów concentration camp and many death marches. The only 2 surviving family members, they returned to Krakow at war’s end, later immigrating to Israel and then the US.
Anne Frank
LUNA Kaufman
Quote from Anne Frank; Image by NEOSiAM 2021 on Pexels; Handwritten illustration by Talia Laniado.
“UNDZER SHTETL BRENT”
Es brent, briderlekh, es brent. Undzer orem shtetl, nebekh, brent! Beyze vintn irgazon, Brekhn, brenen un tseblozn, Un ir shteyt un kukt, Azoy zikh, mit farleygte hent.
Oy, ir shteyt un kukt
Azoy zikh, vi undzer shtetl brent. Es brent, briderlekh, es brent.
Undzer orem shtetl, nebekh, brent!
Es hobn shoyn di fayertsungen
Dos gantse shtetl ayngeshlungen.
Alts arum shoyn brent, Un ir shteyt un kukt
Azoy zikh, vi undzer shtetl brent.
Es brent, briderlekh, es brent!!
Di hilf iz nor in aykh gevent, Az dos shtetl iz aykh tayer, Nemt di keylim, lesht dos fayer, Lesht dos fayer mit eygn blut, Shteyt nit brider
Ot azoy zikh mit farleygte hent.
Shtetyt nit brider
Lesht dos fayer, vayl undzer shtetl brent.
Source: encyclopedia.ushmm.org
It is burning, brothers, it is burning. Our poor little town, a pity, burns! Furious winds blow, Breaking, burning and scattering, And you stand around With folded arms.
O, you stand and look
While our town burns.
It is burning, brothers, it is burning
Our poor little town, a pity, burns
The tongues of fire have already Swallowed the entire town. Everything surrounding it is burning, And you stand around While our town burns.
It is burning, brothers, it is burning! You are the only source of help.
If you value your town,
Take up the tools to put out the fire, Put out the fire with your own blood. Don’t just stand there, brothers, with your arms folded.
Don’t just stand there, brothers, Put out the fire, because our town is burning.
Source: hebrewsongs.com
Mordecai Gebirtig, born in 1877 in Krakow, Poland, was a Yiddish folk poet and songwriter. He wrote “Undzer shtetl brent” in 1936, following a pogrom in the Polish town of Przytyk. During the Holocaust, the song became popular in the Krakow ghetto and inspired young people to take up arms against the Nazis. It was sung in many ghettos and camps, and translated into Polish and several other languages. Gebirtig was killed in June 1942 during a roundup for deportation from the Krakow ghetto.
