Showing posts with label David Machlis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Machlis. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Universal Studios | Auschwitz Survivor And ‘Schindler’s List’ Producer Going Back There For His Bar Mitzvah
A t a tribute on the Universal Studios lot Monday evening, “Schindler’s List” producer Branko Lustig finally received his tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl commonly presented to boys before they’re bar mitzvahed.
The 78-year-old Lustig will go through his coming-of-age ceremony early next month at the place where he couldn’t have had it when he was an adolescent: the Auschwitz concentration camp. Related story: Encino nonprofit aspires to end suffering
Lustig’s long-delayed bar mitzvah will be held as part of this year’s March of the Living, the international event that unites thousands of teens with Holocaust survivors for a learning trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the notorious death camps the Nazis operated in occupied Poland during World War II.
“Because I was still a child, the adult inmates in the camp pleaded with me to tell the story of what had happened to the Jewish people,” Lustig said Monday, in a Universal screening room before some three dozen friends, colleagues and admirers.
He would get the chance to tell that story decades later with “Schindler’s List,” the 1993 best-picture winner that
Steven Spielberg, who directed “Schindler’s List,” offered a videotaped message of congratulations for Lustig at Monday’s tribute: “I know you never had a bar mitzvah. That experience was taken from you by the war, by the Holocaust. So this must be such an emotional experience for you. It’s an emotional experience for me just thinking about you and what you’re experiencing.”
Born in Croatia, which sided with the Axis after the Germans invaded the fractious Yugoslavia confederation in the spring of 1941, Branko and his family avoided capture for a year and a half. He was ultimately transported to Auschwitz in November 1942. A strong boy, he was put to work in mines and construction, but like most survivors of the genocide he attributes living through the ordeal to “mostly luck.”
When he was finally liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in April of 1945, Lustig weighed 66 pounds.
For years David Machlis, vice chairman of the non-profit International March of the Living, thought Lustig would be a perfect participant for the event, which has been bringing pilgrims and survivors to the Auschwitz memorial since 1988.
“Survivors are getting older, and it’s important to develop a cadre of young adults that will be educated on the history and able to be the witnesses to the witnesses,” New York-based Machlis, a college economics professor, said of the organization’s mission. “In my opinion, this was a no-brainer. Producer of `Schindler’s List,’ survivor of Auschwitz – Branko Lustig has done more for Holocaust education than almost anyone in the universe.”
Lustig said he had returned to the sites of the camps twice since the war, when he made “Schindler’s List” and “War and Remembrance.” A friend suggested that if he was going to return for the march, he should finally have his bar mitzvah.
“I said `OK, we’ll do it,”‘ Lustig recalled in an interview last week. “But on the condition that we make it in front of the same barrack where I was when I was actually 12 years old.’
“They agreed,” Lustig added. “It will remind me of an incredible time that, today, I don’t believe that I went through. It will be a great event for me- and I hope it will be the last time that I’m going to Auschwitz.”
Among local teens participating in the March of the Living on May 2 will be Calabasas High School student Naytal Orevi.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to get to understand just how history went down,” said Orevi, who also plans to celebrate her 18th birthday in Israel the week following the march, when the group moves on to the Jewish state for its Independence Day commemoration.
“We can only understand so much from stories,” Orevi explained. “I can really get into somebody’s head who was in the Holocaust and go with them to where they suffered on this trip. If they’re strong enough to do that, then that would be an honor for me to just listen to them, and I know that I’m going to be one of the last generations that will be able to do that.”
Machlis expects some 10,000 people from all over the world – at least a quarter of them non-Jewish – to participate in this year’s march.
“The main purpose is to make the world a better place in which to live, to combat hatred and intolerance, so that `never again’ maybe has a meaning,” Machlis said.
After the war, Lustig returned to Yugoslavia and started the film producing career that eventually led him to Hollywood. He agrees that there can never be enough witnessing and education regarding the Holocaust.
“Keeping the story about Auschwitz alive is very important,” Lustig said. “I am now one of the last survivors, and I have a feeling that when we go, it will be very difficult for young people to remember what happened there. It’s already difficult in some European countries to talk about the Holocaust. People don’t believe, or don’t want to believe, and they don’t want to face the fact that so many people were killed for no reason.”
One thing Lustig isn’t too concerned about, though, is what causes many Jewish youths to lose sleep: Learning all of that Hebrew he’s supposed to recite at the bar mitzvah ceremony.
“Y’know, I am not learning because I can’t learn, anymore, to say everything,” Lustig said with a brief chuckle. “But I will repeat after the rabbi. I am very fortunate that Rabbi Lau, the head rabbi in Jerusalem, will come to Auschwitz and he will make my bar mitzvah. That makes me very happy.”
And in case you were wondering: No, there won’t be a bar mitzvah party after the pre-March ceremony at Auschwitz. Lustig’s bar mitzvah on the site where more than a million were murdered will, of course, be a celebration of enormous import in and of itself.
“To my knowledge, no one else has had a bar mitzvah at Auschwitz,” Machlis said. “There’s tremendous significance. We came back. We survived. We’re here to make a difference, to make the world better based on the most horrific act of humanity. It’s a statement of survival, a statement of renewal, a statement that we have to make the future much better than the past.”
LONG-DELAYED RITE OF PASSAGE Auschwitz survivor and 'Schindler's List' producer going back there for his bar mitzvah
At a tribute on the Universal Studios lot Monday evening, "Schindler's List" producer Branko Lustig finally received his tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl commonly presented to boys before they're bar mitzvahed.
The 78-year-old Lustig will go through his coming-of-age ceremony early next month at the place where he couldn't have had it when he was an adolescent: the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Lustig's long-delayed bar mitzvah will be held as part of this year's March of the Living, the international event that unites thousands of teens with Holocaust survivors for a learning trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the notorious death camps the Nazis operated in occupied Poland during World War II.
"Because I was still a child, the adult inmates in the camp pleaded with me to tell the story of what had happened to the Jewish people," Lustig said Monday, in a Universal screening room before some three dozen friends, colleagues and admirers.
He would get the chance to tell that story decades later with "Schindler's List," the 1993 best-picture winner that portrayed industrialist Oskar Schindler's efforts to save the lives of his Jewish workers during the Holocaust.
Steven Spielberg, who directed "Schindler's List,"offered a videotaped message of congratulations for Lustig at Monday's tribute: "I know you never had a bar mitzvah. That experience was taken from you by the war, by the Holocaust. So this must be such an emotional experience for you. It's an emotional experience for me just thinking about you and what you're experiencing."
Born in Croatia, which sided with the Axis after the Germans invaded the fractious Yugoslavia confederation in the spring of 1941, Branko and his family avoided capture for a year and a half. He was ultimately transported to Auschwitz in November 1942. A strong boy, he was put to work in mines and construction, but like most survivors of the genocide he attributes living through the ordeal to "mostly luck."
When he was finally liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in April of 1945, Lustig weighed 66 pounds.
For years David Machlis, vice chairman of the non-profit International March of the Living, thought Lustig would be a perfect participant for the event, which has been bringing pilgrims and survivors to the Auschwitz memorial since 1988.
"Survivors are getting older, and it's important to develop a cadre of young adults that will be educated on the history and able to be the witnesses to the witnesses," New York-based Machlis, a college economics professor, said of the organization's mission. "In my opinion, this was a no-brainer. Producer of `Schindler's List,' survivor ofAuschwitz - Branko Lustig has done more for Holocaust education than almost anyone in the universe."
Lustig said he had returned to the sites of the camps twice since the war, when he made "Schindler's List" and "War and Remembrance." A friend suggested that if he was going to return for the march, he should finally have his bar mitzvah.
"I said `OK, we'll do it,"' Lustig recalled in an interview last week. "But on the condition that we make it in front of the same barrack where I was when I was actually 12 years old.'
"They agreed," Lustig added. "It will remind me of an incredible time that, today, I don't believe that I went through. It will be a great event for me- and I hope it will be the last time that I'm going to Auschwitz."
Among local teens participating in the March of the Living on May 2 will be Calabasas High School student Naytal Orevi.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to get to understand just how history went down," said Orevi, who also plans to celebrate her 18th birthday in Israel the week following the march, when the group moves on to the Jewish state for its Independence Day commemoration.
"We can only understand so much from stories," Orevi explained. "I can really get into somebody's head who was in the Holocaust and go with them to where they suffered on this trip. If they're strong enough to do that, then that would be an honor for me to just listen to them, and I know that I'm going to be one of the last generations that will be able to do that."
Machlis expects some 10,000 people from all over the world - at least a quarter of them non-Jewish - to participate in this year's march.
"The main purpose is to make the world a better place in which to live, to combat hatred and intolerance, so that `never again' maybe has a meaning," Machlis said.
After the war, Lustig returned to Yugoslavia and started the film producing career that eventually led him to Hollywood. He agrees that there can never be enough witnessing and education regarding the Holocaust.
"Keeping the story about Auschwitz alive is very important," Lustig said. "I am now one of the last survivors, and I have a feeling that when we go, it will be very difficult for young people to remember what happened there. It's already difficult in some European countries to talk about the Holocaust. People don't believe, or don't want to believe, and they don't want to face the fact that so many people were killed for no reason."
One thing Lustig isn't too concerned about, though, is what causes many Jewish youths to lose sleep: Learning all of that Hebrew he's supposed to recite at the bar mitzvah ceremony.
"Y'know, I am not learning because I can't learn, anymore, to say everything," Lustig said with a brief chuckle. "But I will repeat after the rabbi. I am very fortunate that Rabbi Lau, the head rabbi in Jerusalem, will come to Auschwitz and he will make my bar mitzvah. That makes me very happy."
And in case you were wondering: No, there won't be a bar mitzvah party after the pre-March ceremony at Auschwitz. Lustig's bar mitzvah on the site where more than a million were murdered will, of course, be a celebration of enormous import in and of itself.
"To my knowledge, no one else has had a bar mitzvah at Auschwitz," Machlis said. "There's tremendous significance. We came back. We survived. We're here to make a difference, to make the world better based on the most horrific act of humanity. It's a statement of survival, a statement of renewal, a statement that we have to make the future much better than the past."
Monday, April 4, 2011
Branko Lustig Bar Mitzvah Festivities Begin
Branko Lustig Bar Mitzvah Festivities Begin
Branko Lustig has come a long way from his native town of Osijek, Croatia. Born to Croatian-Jewish parents in 1932, most of Lustig's family perished during the Holocaust. Lustig was imprisoned for two years in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. After the war, he returned to his native Croatia and became a successful filmmaker. He ultimately moved to the United States and received an Oscar in 1993 for producing, along side Steven Spielberg, the epic film Schindler's List.
Yet despite receiving Oscars for both Schindler's List and Gladiator, Lustig has yearned to obtain one accomplishment that the Nazis prevented him from achieving. Jewish boys traditionally become Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13, but Lustig missed this opportunity. On his 13th birthday, Lustig weighed 66 pounds and was recovering from his two years of captivity in the Nazi concentration camps.
Today, April 4th, Branko Lustig begins his journey to became a Bar Mitzvah. This evening, Lustig will gather with his friends to celebrate this milestone, which will take him back to the very concentration camp where his grandmother and several of his family members were murdered. On Monday, May 2nd, as 10,000 high school students and Holocaust survivors are gathering to begin The March of the Living from Auschwitz to its sub-camp Birkenau, Branko Lustig will read from the Torah. With Israel's Chief Rabbi Meir Lau officiating, Branko Lustig will become a Bar Mitzvah on the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
JLTV will be broadcasting
The March of the Living
LIVE on May 2nd.
Friday, April 1, 2011
MARCH OF THE LIVING EMBRACING THE PAST - ENSURING THE FUTURE; by David Machlis, Ph.D. Vice Chairman International March of the Living
Since its founding in 1988, the March of the Living (MOL) has become the world's preeminent program aimed at educating the world's youth about the importance of Holocaust remembrance. More than 150,000 people from 40 nations have participated in the March of the Living since its inception in 1988.
The International March of the Living is dedicated to the providing of Holocaust education, primarily but not exclusively, to high school students from around the globe. Toward that goal, we conduct seminars, classes and group activities in conjunction with our partners and constituent organizations (Federations, Zionist youth organizations, Bureaus of Jewish Education, Jewish educational institutions).
Through our network of partners worldwide, we are currently and continually involved in the interviewing and recruitment of program participants. Our partners provide a thorough and comprehensive educational orientation to the March of the Living participants during the four months prior to the trip; and in addition, all leaders participate in seminars organized by the International March of the Living to review the programs of the previous year and in preparation for the coming program. The training process is then complemented by the participants' journey through time and history in Poland where, in addition to visits to and education about the camps and ghettos, they commemorate Yom Ha'Shoah through the three kilometer march from Auschwitz to Birkenau. The opportunity to see the sites and stand on the very soil as our ancestors, has a proven success record of strengthening the commitment to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust, to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and to accept one's social responsibility to use these lessons to help secure a better future for all. This memorable educational experience continues in Israel where participants commemorate Yom HaZikaron and celebrate Yom Ha'Atzmaut and experience Israel with a new understanding of this chapter of our Jewish past and its relevance to our present and future.
On Yom Ha'Atzmaut, the concluding day of the program, a festive and joyous March takes place from Safra Square to the Kotel. The Am Yisrael Chai feelings that pervade the atmosphere remain with the students forever and is a clear indicator of the impact of the program on our young, impressionable participants. Following this glorious March, an outstanding mega-musical event and dinner party is held for all our participants with an unimaginable display of love for, commitment to and bond with Israel.
During the two week life altering experience, the international delegations of students march en masse in Poland to keep alive the memory of the millions of those of our people who perished. They march to proclaim their commitment to the State of Israel. They march to help build a better and safer world so that no people shall again be forced to experience the horror of the Shoah. Once in Israel, their understanding of and commitment to the Jewish future becomes universally reinforced by all participants. Thousands of MOL alumni each year become active "ambassadors" in their own communities and on their campuses in support of Israel.
In the Jewish identity project research study entitled "Beyond Distancing: Young Adult American Jews and their Alienation from Israel", the waning attachment of American Jews to the State of Israel was astonishing. A most compelling statistic from the research of Messeurs. Cohen and Kelman, indicates that almost one half of non-Orthodox young adults ages 18-36 would not be devastated if the State of Israel did not exist.
I believe that the Taglit-Birthright founders anticipated the aforementioned alienation and, according to their web site, created a program "to send thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry and to strengthen participants' Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish People." I am pleased to reiterate the March of the Living achieves all of the Taglit target objectives with even more exceptional results.
Our research studies (See attached charts) clearly indicate that MOL is empowered to accomplish seismic changes in our participants' attitude toward Israel and their commitment to a Jewish lifestyle.
As a result of participating in the March of the Living, virtually all the students develop a strong connection to their Jewish heritage, are committed to marrying a Jewish spouse and providing their children with a Jewish education. Moreover, Israel becomes an important and meaningful part of their existence with a significant portion of alumni returning to Israel on numerous occasions.
The International March of the Living is eager to explore and pursue establishing a meaningful partnership with Shapell Foundation in our outreach to Jewish Student Union members. We were appropriately excited and elated but not surprised when the Honorable Natan Sharanksy announced earlier this year that the strengthening of Jewish identity for both Israelis and Diaspora Jews was the most important mission for the Jewish Agency for Israel. Much more additional work needs to be done in order to assure the future of our Jewish people and the vitality and strength of the State of Israel. Working together with the Jewish Student Union to provide a March of the Living experience to Jewish public high school students from diverse backgrounds will make a tremendous impact on these students' commitment to their Jewish heritage and their bond to Israel.
The Jewish Student Union program is effectively impacting Jewish public high school students from diverse backgrounds and levels of commitment to their Jewish heritage. The programs are serving students in 27 states and Canadian provinces with 220 high schools involved. The typical JSU club hour offers the students engaging and interactive programming on topics of student interests that are designed to: enhance a teen’s Jewish identity, nurture a connection to the State of Israel, and inspire an enduring relationship with the Jewish people and to provide for a deeper involvement with the Jewish community.
These students are excellent candidates for an MOL experience. Under the guidance of the Jewish Student Union, students will be selected on the basis of their demonstrated leadership skills. This will assure both March of the Living and the Jewish Student Union that the impact on these students will be transmitted to other students on their home campuses and in their communities.
In the mid-eighties, the founders of the March of the Living designed a program with its main goals of honoring the memory of those who perished in the Shoah; expanding Holocaust education and developing a cadre of alumni around the world to serve as agents for change in combating Holocaust denial on their campuses and in their communities. Little did we recognize that we possessed the seeds for dramatically impacting Jewish youth regarding their commitment to their Jewish heritage, their Jewish identity and their bond to and love for the State of Israel.
The power is in the process. We, indeed, almost accidentally, created a fabulous formula for achieving the results that are so important to the Jewish Student Union. The components of our success are enumerated below:
· Our primary target audience is 16-18 year old Jewish youth. Psychologists and sociologists tell us that at this delicate age, participants are very impressionable and more prone to modifying their behavior and attitudes than when several years older and in a college environment.
· Bringing together youth from diverse Jewish backgrounds from around the world. Approximately 20% of our population comes from a modern Orthodox background. The balance of our participants come from Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist religious affiliation with a healthy dose of students being totally unaffiliated and at great risk regarding their Jewish identity. This unique inter and intra-group blending serves to promote appreciation of "the other" and creates a unique bond to a common goal - Jewish and Israel survival.
· Rigorous educational preparation prior to the program. The program is far more than just a trip.
· The power of combining Auschwitz on Yom Ha'Shoah with Jerusalem on Yom Ha'Atzmaut clearly leaves a lasting impression on virtually all participants.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
