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Anita Silverman Hirsch Z"l

Theatrical reading of "Address Unknown" followed by a panel discussion about civic engagement


This year marks the 65th year since the liberation of Auschwitz and to commemorate this important day, the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum invites you to a theatrical reading of "Address Unknown" followed by a panel discussion about civic engagement at 5151Cote-Ste-Catherine Road, the Gelber Centre in Montreal


◦ Address Unknown was written in 1938, as a series of letters between a Jewish art dealer, living in San Francisco, and his German best friend and business partner, who had returned to Germany in 1932 and gradually adopted the ideology of Nazism,

◦ at 6:00pm: French Reading at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum,

◦ at 7:00pm: English Reading at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum.


◦ At 8H15pm : 
Following the Readings, a Panel discussion about the importance of civic engagement


The role of the everyday citizen in genocide prevention and other human rights abuses,
Moderated by Alice Herscovitch, Executive Director of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre (MHMC),

◦ with the participation of Susyn Borer, President of Board of Directors, MHMC,

◦ a reprensentative of the Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and other Human Rights Violations,

◦ And Steve Baird, Executive Director of The Darfur/Sudan Peace Network.



Audience members will have the opportunity to meet representatives from different human rights organisations, and learn about volunteer opportunities.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

About my family in Hungary during the Second World War

The earthquake in Haiti recently prompted me to recall these memories about survival of a different sort.

I grew up with the stories of my family – their courageous attempts to save themselves and those around them during the 10 plus years of the Nazi onslaught:
There was the German soldier who waved my mother away from the ghetto where German soldiers were rounding up Jews.

The Hungarian couple, Gozon neni and Gozon baci who found work for my aunt Lilly as a maid with a Hungarian family, and accepted my teenage uncles to stay in his home when they escaped the Nazi soldiers who were marching their school group through Budapest saying to anyone who asked, “these are our cousins visiting us from the country.” I visited the home of this dear man, five years ago when I and my sister Anita and her two sons Noam and Yair and their wives, Maya and Ilana, visited Hungary with my Mom, Edith, who was then in her eighties. During the war, Gozon baci was the superintendant of a small apartment building in fashionable Buda on the way to the national park overlooking the Danube, which still exists with its monuments and overlook, and which had been the billeting site for the German army. Gozon baci’s daughter was dating a German officer and he would come to the house.

All these people, my aunt Lilli, my aunt Margit, my uncles,Tibi, and André as well as my dear Mother, Edith are alive today due to the bravery of this man and his wife and sister. Sadly Gozon neni and Gozon baci and even their children are long gone, but their memory will always be with me and with my family, and I hope through this blog with you.


Abigail Hirsch
Montreal, 1/27/2010

AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la guérison en communauté



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Feelings and thoughts about the earthquake in Haiti

Thoughts about the earthquake in Haiti

As I watch the unfolding of the events in Haiti. I feel numb. I was not alive in 1945 but I think to myself this is what the coverage of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been like, only much worse due to the tremendous pain caused by any burning flesh.

As much as nature’s cruelty is awesome, I am reminded that man’s can be worse. I was born after the second world war, but my parents survived the Nazi onslaught in Hungary, both the invading armies, German and Russian, and the Nazi drive to exterminate Jews and others deemed “inferior”, gypsies, the handicapped, democrats, communists, and all those who did not support their ideology which lasted over 10 years from 1933 - 1945. I have spent my life trying to understand how something like this could have actually been put into place by the likes of Eichmann, Hitler, and Goering, and the silent acquiescence of those who did not speak up to oppose them.

On Sunday the day after the earthquake I joined an internet gratitude site. Yesterday morning, they sent me a notice asking why I had not posted anything. As much as I wanted to, I was numb: and then as I left the house yesterday morning on my way to a rehearsal with my camera equipment (I am videotaping the process of the creation of a play about human rights initiated by a class of autistic boys and girls and jointly produced by them and several non-autistic boys and girls from the same school, and a group of boys and girls from Herzliyah High school in Montreal which is on exactly this same theme: connâitre l’histoire pour ne pas conter des histoires) the following words came to me:

Moda ani lefaneha, Melech Hai ve Kayam, shehehezarta bi nishmati behemlah, rabah emunateha (and my friend Miriam Ohevetel adds the word bi.)

I am grateful to You, Living and Ongoing Source of All, for restoring my breath,(my soul) to me this morning. How great is your compassion and courageous faith: and my friend Miriam adds the word “bi” Hebrew for “in me”.

This is the formula for the start of all morning Jewish prayer. And I felt the revival of my spirit, the sudden revival of hope that is so necessary especially in the darkest of times as recently pointed out by Rabbi Steinmetz in his talk on the parsha relating to the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt (Vaeerah)



I am still here and I can do good in this world.

Abigail Hirsch
514-792-6065

Blogger:            http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail

AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés

Campus Ahead Program: free: Feb 2nd 6:30- 8:30 Cote St.Luc

The next Campus Ahead session will be held from 6:30-8:30pm on Tuesday, February 2nd at the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue on Mackle (in Cote Saint Luc). This session will explore, differentiate and grapple with traditional antisemitism, the new antisemitism and anti-Israelism. Through a mix of interactive polling, discussions and real-life experiences from student leaders, we will explore the implications, responses and trends on campus.

This session is free for all post-secondary school students as well as students in Secondary V (grade 11) who are likely to be on a college campus next year. Supper will be served. So we can prepare properly, please register


online. For more information, please contact Jason (514.845.9171).

Tell your friends!

About two films:Defamation and Norman Finkelstein

Iletters@guardian.co.uk

about the film "Defamation"

I actually saw this film and the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein, both shown at the documentary film festival in Montreal and I was appalled.
I too am a filmmaker. Askabigail Productions
Filmmaking can take a very narrow window on any issue and do it very convincingly.
Can we forget the films of Reifenshtahl, the Nazi filmmaker.

I also saw the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein which claims that Finkelstein was not granted tenure at two different universities because of the "Jewish Lobby" namely a letter from Allan Dershowitz.
As another professor shared with me on this point: If Finkelstein did not contest his rejection it was because he knew that there were things he did not want exposed in his university file: and after watching the film I think I understand what they might be.

Finkelstein has been the darling of the virulent anti-Israel campaign mounted by the Left, the same left that supports the Israel/apartheid week on campuses, and promotes The Israel boycott movement all over the world touting Israel as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Sadly, Finkelstein too is Jewish and the child of two holocaust survivors.

Anti-semitism is a dirty word: But not facing it is worse.
Since Jews live all over the world, including in Israel, and have every political persuasion, it is not difficult to find Jews such as the film maker himself, misunderstanding the issues, defaming Israel, and poo-poohing the very real dangers of anti-semitism, the very essence of defamation. This film really does not get it right, and through its biased coverage is defamatory of Jews and of Israel and of the very real issues of anti-semitism, currently thriving in the Moslem world and whose seed has not been extinguished in the western world.

Abigail Hirsch


Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail

AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés

Thoughts about the Earthquake in Haiti

As I watch the unfolding of the events in Haiti, I feel numb. I was not alive in 1945 but I think to myself this is what the coverage of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been like, only much worse due to the tremendous pain caused by burning flesh:

As much as nature’s cruelty is awesome, I am reminded that man’s can be worse. I was born after the second world war, but my parents survived the Nazi onslaught in Hungary, both the invading armies, German and Russian, and the Nazi drive to exterminate Jews and others deemed “inferior”, gypsies, the handicapped, democrats, communists, and all those who did not support the Nazi ideology which lasted over ten years from 1933 - 1945. I have spent my life trying to understand how something like the Nazi death factories, also known as concentration camps, could have actually been put into place by the likes of Eichmann, Hitler, and Goering, and the silent acquiescence of those who did not speak up to oppose them. Is it only me who is thinking of Ahmedinajad and his threat to "wipe Israel off the map?", the same Ahmedinajad who is using Hitlerian strategies against her own people, torturing and imprisoning those who would protest, and actively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

I was listening to a radio program on bullying, and it appears that bullying can be easily stopped if even one bystander speaks up against it. This has to be taught to our children the most fearfully affected by bullying in our time: but we all need to know it and governments need to understand this as well: We must not acquiesce to the bullying of Iran or Al Quaeda wherever they find safe haven.

On Sunday the day after the earthquake I joined an internet gratitude site. Yesterday morning, they sent me a notice asking why I had not posted anything. As much as I wanted to, I was numb: and then as I left the house yesterday morning on my way to a rehearsal with my camera equipment: (I am videotaping the process of the creation of a play on exactly this theme: being aware of history in order not to repeat it: connaîitre l’histoire pour ne pas se conter des histoires: Initiated by a class of autistic boys and girls, and jointly produced by them and several non-autistic boys and girls from the same school, école de la Magdeleine in Brossard and a group of boys and girls from Herzliyah High school in Montreal, suddenly the following words came to me:

Moda ani lefaneha, Melech Hai ve Kayam, shehehezarta bi nishmati behemlah, rabah emunateha (and my friend Miriam Ohevetel adds the word bi.)

I am grateful to You, Living and Ongoing Source of All, for restoring my breath,(my soul) to me this morning. How great is your compassion and courageous faith: and my friend Miriam adds the word “bi” Hebrew for “in me”.

This is the formula for the start of all morning Jewish prayer. And I felt the revival of my spirit, the sudden revival of hope that is so necessary especially in the darkest of times. I am still here and I can do good in this world. for more on this theme of irrational hope in the darkest times see Rabbi Steinmetz' five minute you tube talk http://www.youtube.com/user/dalfppp.

I grew up with the stories of my family – their courageous attempts to save themselves and those around them during the ten plus years of the Nazi onslaught:

There was the German soldier who waved my mother away from the ghetto where German soldiers were rounding up Jews.

The Hungarian couple, Gozon neni and Gozon baci who found work for my aunt Lilly as a maid with a Hungarian family, and accepted my teenage uncles to stay in his home when they escaped the Nazi soldiers who were marching their school group through Budapest saying to anyone who asked, “these are our cousins visiting us from the country.” I visited the home of this dear man, five years ago when I and my sister Anita and her two sons Noam and Yair and their wives, Maya and Ilana, visited Hungary with my Mom, Edith, who was then in her eighties. During the war, Gozon baci was the superintendant of a small apartment building in fashionable Buda on the way to the national park overlooking the Danube, which still exists with its monuments and overlook, and which had been the billeting site for the German army. Gozon baci’s daughter was dating a German officer and he would come to the house.

All these people, my aunt Lilli, my aunt Margit, my uncles,Tibi, and André as well as my dear Mother, Edith are alive today due to the bravery of this man and his wife and sister. Sadly Gozon neni and Gozon baci and even their children are long gone, but their memory will always be with me and with my family, and I hope through this blog with you.

I have more to share about my experiences of yesterday: About my discussion with the Morrocan Moslem cab driver who drove me to Herzliya who could recall the earthquake in Agadir:...

About the first full rehearsal with the all of the students and with Andre Michel, and Alby, an African Canadian singer, both participants in the same play. More postings on this as we proceed.

And about reading the tribute to Raoul Wallenberg with my Mom, the very same day from her computer in her own home.

I had a very full day:

But these will be the next instalments.

And also watch for the posting of an interview by Sonia Sarah Lipsyc with Rabbi Sandy Sasso, a celebrated author of children’s books dealing with childrens’ understanding of G-d and the Jewish tradition and also one of the first female rabbis in the United States which we hope to share with you as a video post.

Let us all work to increase peace, hope, and love in this world.

Together we can make a difference.

À BIENTÔT,

Abigail Hirsch