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HALF HOLLOW HILLS Copyright © 2010 Long Islander Newspapers, LLC.
Online at www.LongIslanderNews.com VOLUME THIRTEEN, ISSUE 7
N E W S P A P E R
LONG ISLANDER NEWSPAPERS TELECOMMUNICATIONS/MEDIA BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 28 PAGES
THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010
MELVILLE
Holocaust Survivor Shares Her Story Jewish center remembers those killed in World War II, dedicates Czech Memorial Scroll By Sara-Megan Walsh swalsh@longislandernews.com
“The power of survival is so strong, you would do anything to survive.” Holocaust survivor Leah Fischer Lee shared the story of her plight in Nazi concentration camps with members of South Huntington Jewish Center of Melville on Sunday during their Yom Hashoah service. The event marked the start of Holocaust Remembrance week, April 11-17, as the congregants recalled those killed during World War II in a solemn ceremony. “Tonight we remember the individual people who passed away, those lives cut short,” said Rabbi Ian Jacknis. “There is no way to fully remember what the Holocaust was about.” However, Lee’s story was one of survival against all odds. She said the Nazis declared war on her native homeland of Poland in 1933, which was occupied by the time she was 14 in 1941. Her children asked the survivor to step forward to share her story with next generation, so it would not be forgotten. “We were absolutely devastated,” Lee said, describing the raid of her home. “One early morning we heard the sound of machine guns and someone screaming, ‘Jews get out, get out, get out.’” The invading Nazis forced her family into a fenced-off ghetto, four families to a house. Lee’s journey began as they took her from a Lithuania work camp, where
The South Huntington Jewish Center dedicated a Czech Torah Memorial Scroll to its museum, picked by Herb and Margie Pryves, above, which serves as permanent reminder of those Jews killed during the Holocaust and their ongoing struggle to preserve the Jewish culture. she was forced to shovel gravel into trains for construction of a new highway, then working in fields in Latvia and Estonia camps with hundreds of other Jews. “We had no names, as a name was too good for us. They tried to humiliate us as much as possible,” she said.
The survivor said many times she simply did whatever she was told, from digging potatoes out of a field with her bare hands to submitting to bodily inspections without question. There was one time she rebelled, attempting to escape. “When it got dark we ran into the woods.
[The Nazis] didn’t see us, we were lucky,” Lee said. “But after a few hours we went back to the highway and rejoined our group. We didn’t know where else to go.” Throughout the journey, she stressed the importance of her staying with her family and keeping her faith. A symbol of the European Jews’ will to preserve their culture, Ritual co-vice president Jeffery Kreinces said, was a Czech Memorial Scroll dedicated as part of the synogogue’s museum on Monday. Kreinces said the Torah scroll is one of 1,564 recovered from the Nazi raids of the town of Tabor, Czech Republic during World War II. The Germans had stored many Jewish artifacts in Prague as they planned to later build a museum of the “extinct race.” These scrolls were discovered in 1964, upon which they sent to Westminister, London for careful cataloging and preservation. South Huntington Jewish Center congregants Herb and Margie Pryves brought home the Czech scroll during their 1999 trip to London, which is on permanent loan to the synogogue. South Huntington Jewish youth carried candles in solemn procession during the Yom Hashoah program, as they read aloud dozens of names of Jewish children killed during the Holocaust from 1993-1945. Some read the names of their great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles from their own families, to demonstrate how they will forever live on.
TOWN OF HUNTINGTON
Anti-Cyberbullying Bill Raises Questions Educators, protection agencies support proposed law but have legal, enforcement concerns By Sara-Megan Walsh swalsh@longislandernews.com
As Suffolk County considers new anti-cyberbullying laws, educators and protection services officials speaking up in support admit they have reservations about enacting it. Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper (D-Huntington) will present legislation that will criminalize cyberbullying of children 18 and under at the county legislature’s April 27 meeting. The bill has drawn support based on nationally publicized cases, but many feel legal issues surrounding its constitutionality, enforcement and effectiveness must still be answered.
“So many deaths have been caused by cyberbullying a new term has arisen – not homicide, but ‘bullycide.’ It’s nationally recognized as a real problem, a growing problem and it’s only going to get worse as more people use the internet and social networking sites,” Cooper said. His legislation defines cyberbullying as committing repetitive acts of abusive behavior, threatening, intimidating, insulting, tormenting, humiliating, etc., through electrical communication over a period of time. The bills calls for perpetrators of any age found guilty cyberbullying a child 18 and under to face up to a $1,000 fine and/or one year in jail.
As of Friday, 10 of Suffolk County’s 18 legislators had signed on to co-sponsor Cooper’s bill including Leg. Steven Stern (D-Dix Hills). “I think Legislator Cooper should be commended for purring in the bill. Cyberbullying should be a crime, and if nothing else, it helps raise awareness with regard to the issue,” said Legislator Louis D`Amaro (D-N. Babylon). While several local child education and protection agencies said they supported the bill, they questioned its legality and future effectiveness. “We question whether it’s enforceable
“At the end of the day, we can’t legislate kindness and civility. As much as we’d like to criminalize meanness, it’s pretty hard to do.” — ALANE FAGIN, Executive Director of Child Abuse Protection Services
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