tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77859827516570555182024-03-17T02:27:15.181-07:00Jewish Partisan Educational FoundationJPEF programs, articles, updates, new ideas, and conversations about teaching the history and life lessons of the Jewish partisans. <br><br>
<a href="http://www.jewishpartisans.org">Click here to visit our main site.</a>JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-4284490511320826582024-03-14T06:43:00.000-07:002024-03-14T06:43:11.766-07:00"Resist, resist, to our last breath!" - Abba Kovner (z''l) and Vitka Kempner (z''l) galvanized resistance in the Vilnius Ghetto
In honor of their shared March 14th birthdays, JPEF highlights Abba Kovner and Vitka Kempner, partisans from the Vilnius Ghetto who eventually married.
Abba Kovner was born in 1918 in Sebastopol, Russia. His family eventually emigrated and he spent his high school years in Vilnius (Vilna), Lithuania — the preeminent center of Jewish culture and learning atJPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-1797822238000390652024-03-11T04:45:00.000-07:002024-03-11T04:45:31.427-07:00Miriam Brysk – born March 10, 1935 –Child Holocaust Survivor and Partisan Miriam (Mirka) Miasnik Brysk was born on March 10, 1935, in Warsaw, Poland. She was the only child of Bronka and Dr. Chaim Miasnik, and her parents affectionately called her by her nickname “Mirele.” She grew up on Zelazna Street, with her father’s medical office adjoining their apartment. Her father was a well-known and respected surgeon, an occupation that would later save their lives. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-49424414823867817922024-03-07T06:53:00.000-08:002024-03-07T06:53:48.688-08:00Featured Jewish Partisan - Sima Simieticka, Born In 1923The eldest of two daughters, Sima Simieticka was born on March 8, 1923 to a family of tailors in Warsaw. Her father left the family for Russia when she was only two years old – he went to the newly-established Soviet state to seek his fortunes, but instead ended up in front of the firing squad for being a Trotskyist.
Sima and her sister lived with their mother and grandfather, who both worked asJPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-47317019720091259132024-03-01T09:46:00.000-08:002024-03-01T17:45:10.219-08:00Bring Jewish Women in the Partisans to Women's History Month with JPEF's ResourcesMarch 2024 marks the 44th Women's History Month. JPEF's website has an extensive library of easily accessible resources and lesson plans to help educators and parents teach about the history of women in the Jewish partisans.
So many brave women — young and old alike — fought back to defeat the Germans and their collaborators. JPEF is proud to share these women's stories. Please check out JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-921534954317084602024-02-27T07:16:00.000-08:002024-02-27T07:16:49.043-08:00Jewish Partisan Walter Marx (z''l) – born February 27, 1926 – Lost His Family Home on Kristallnacht"I believe that the Italian partisans were very effective in pinning down a certain amount of German troops...And of course, the Italians, partisans, were ultimately in a position to arrest Mussolini and to put an end to the fascist regime in Italy... I believe that the Italian partisans did a lot to reestablish the good name of the Italian people by wiping out some of the bad things that the JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-41957198817390417032024-02-23T06:44:00.000-08:002024-02-23T06:44:26.742-08:00Remembering Rae Kushner (z''l) and her Escape from the Novogrudok Ghetto"But he knew the way how to go in the woods. We didn't know nothing. I [was with] my sister and my father and I said to him, '…we're going to die together or we're going to be rescued together.' We were sitting under the bushes for 10 days. And it was pouring."
— Rae Kushner.
Reichel "Rae" Kushner, was born to Nashum and Hinda Kushner, on February 27, 1923, in Novogrudok, Poland. The JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-33434681693070325292024-02-20T08:49:00.000-08:002024-02-20T08:49:48.635-08:00Sam Lato (z''l), born on February 24, Became a Partisan at 17"Whenever you went on assignment, the most dangerous part is coming back. Going there, they don’t know you're there, so you sneak in. While you sneak in, they might catch you, they might shoot you, but going back is the problem, because they know you're here, and they're going to go after you. However, if they don't know the direction you went, they won't catch you, but if they saw one, they're JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-5330177288613106382024-01-11T09:54:00.000-08:002024-01-17T08:38:43.650-08:00Jewish Partisan hero Mira Shelub turns 102 on January 13, 2024"Somehow, you know, when we came out from them, from the ghetto, I cannot tell you how good it felt to breathe the fresh air, to know that we are free, to know that we can go. Okay, there were difficulties, obstacles, but we knew that we can go, that nobody will stop us, to breathe the fresh air, to see the trees. It was something, a special, special experience and then we came to the forest. We JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-54728980576208698002024-01-11T09:51:00.000-08:002024-01-12T12:25:46.970-08:00Jewish Partisan Lilka (Ticktin) Bielski (z''l) – born January 13, 1926 Lilka Ticktin was born in Bialystock, Poland, on January 13, 1926. Before she was a year old, her family settled in Novogrudok. Her mother, Zina, was from a well-to-do, cultured family. Her father, Alter, had a thriving business collecting rags and processing them in multiple warehouses to produce paper. The Ticktin family was well-known in the shtetl, and often paid for weddings, a bris, or a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-24418229039339152892023-10-19T10:15:00.000-07:002023-10-20T10:31:29.437-07:00Abe Asner's Military Training Helped Him Save Lives"Grodno still was a ghetto, and lots of people went back to the ghetto like Saul, his father, his mother. And I said, “Me and my brothers, we’re not going back to the ghetto. We’re not going. We’re going to win, doesn’t matter what. If I die, I’ll die standing up — not to shoot me in the back.”
-Abe Asner
Jewish partisan Abe Asner (z''l), was born in the district of Lida, Poland on October 19, JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-20965194679153885012023-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:002023-10-13T10:35:05.966-07:00Don Felson (z''l) Dynamited Railroads to Disrupt German Conveys Carrying SuppliesDon Felson was born October 12, 1925 in Glubokie, Poland. A small town about a hundred miles northeast of Vilna, the town sits on a low plain amidst hills in present-day Belarus. In 1941, the Germans invaded Glubokie, and promptly established a ghetto for the town’s Jewish inhabitants.
Don, who had a job at a German POW infirmary at the time, was tipped off about the first massacre by a JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-52887321971040950242023-09-27T09:32:00.000-07:002023-09-27T10:30:25.250-07:00Jewish partisan Charles Bedzow Fought with the Bielski Brigade
Charles Bedzow was born Chonon Bedzowski on September 28, 1924 in the town of Lida, located in present-day Belarus. Once the Germans occupied Lida, Charles and his family were stuffed into an overcrowded, disease ridden ghetto within the town. He and his family suffered under the constant threat of starvation in the gradually worsening conditions. In the spring of 1942, he watched as his fellow JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-70457396486164739902023-08-21T09:35:00.000-07:002023-08-21T09:51:59.558-07:00Featured Jewish Partisan - Brenda Senders, born on August 20th"You know, you were not fussy where you sleep or where you lay down, and sometimes they ask me how did you get food. You know, you go in with guns and the person will not give you food so you take it yourself. It was a war, it was not a matter of being polite or this way or the other way. It's being survival was at stake."
— Brenda Senders.
Brenda Senders was born in 1925 in the town of Sarny, JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-42714726278942430232023-08-18T08:05:00.000-07:002023-08-18T09:22:28.588-07:00 Jewish Partisan - Bernard Druskin, born on August 18
"The only thing we used to get [...] parachuted is dynamite, ammunition, and arms, and the rest, we had to live off the fat of the land."
- Bernard Druskin.
Bernard Druskin was born one hundred years ago, on August 18, 1921, in Vilna, Poland. He was the oldest of the three Druskin children – his two little sisters were named Rachel and Marilyn, and his family worked in the felt supply JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-60915020915307662082023-08-11T08:00:00.000-07:002023-08-11T13:10:51.026-07:00Jewish Partisan Leah Bedzowski Johnson (z''l) - Honoring her BirthdayOver 80 years ago, on the eve of Leah Bedzowski Johnson's 18th birthday, the Nazis invaded her hometown of Lida, located in the eastern half of Poland. At this time, Leah's father had just passed away, and her family was in mourning. With the arrival of the Nazis and the antisemitic policies they imposed, many more challenges lay ahead for the family.
Leah, with her mother Chasia, and her three JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-74547616195806640562023-07-10T07:00:00.000-07:002023-07-10T10:34:38.213-07:00 Leon Idas, born July 11, 1925, Fought for the Liberation of Greece at 16"We are Jewish, and you know what happened to the Jews, I said, they round them up and we come here, we didn't care if it is Communists or Royalists or Democratic, Conservative, we come here to become Partisan, to fight the common enemy — the Nazis." – Leon Idas.
Leon Idas was born July 11, 1925 in Athens, Greece. He grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood with his father, a textiles JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-26732793303562821602023-07-06T10:13:00.000-07:002023-07-07T01:41:57.950-07:00Share the Legacy of Jewish Partisan Sonya Oshman (z''l)
The eldest of four children, Sonya Oshman (z''l) was born in 1922 to a family of wealthy Novogrudok merchants. Novogrudok was a Polish town with a population in the thousands, approximately half of whom were Jewish. The Gorodinskys were well-respected, and Sonya’s father was occasionally called upon to mediate tensions between the town’s Polish and Jewish communities.
Sonya had planned to JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-85406338748580377082023-07-03T11:00:00.000-07:002023-07-03T11:49:26.770-07:00Celebrating Joe Kubryk's 97th Birthday - July 1st"We had a very difficult time in the partisans among our own soldiers. What happened is we had Ukrainians, we had Poles, we had Polish soldiers that escaped from the prisons of Juaros and came to the partisans. And we had Russians. None of them really liked the Jews." - Joe Kubryk on being a Jewish partisan.
Joe Kubryk was born in the Russian Ukraine, not far from Odessa, on July 1st, JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-60864896447459798562023-06-14T13:57:00.000-07:002023-06-14T13:57:53.223-07:00Shalom Yoran - The Defiant [Born June 29, 1925]Shalom Yoran was born Selim Sznycer in 1925 in Warsaw, Poland. When Shalom was 15 years old, his family fled east, leaving the Nazi-occupied area of Poland for the Soviet side. However, a year later the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, and the Yoran family found their new home, the village of Kurzeniec, occupied by the Nazis.
Two years later, in 1942, the Nazis established a Russian POW camp JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-9754865508078012942023-05-24T10:54:00.000-07:002023-05-24T10:54:29.855-07:00Jewish Partisan Sonia Orbuch (z''l) was born on May 24, 1925“I didn’t even bend down my head, I wasn’t worried that I was going to get killed, If I was going to get killed I was going to get killed as a fighter, not because I am a Jew.” — Sonia Orbuch, during JPEF interview.
Sarah Shainwald was 14 years old and ready to begin high school when the bombs began falling on September 1, 1939, marking the official start of World War II. The Soviets JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-392833222510547272023-05-08T09:36:00.000-07:002023-05-08T09:36:47.788-07:00More than 15,000 People Today Owe Their Lives to Tuvia Bielski (z''l), Born May 8, 1906Over seventy years ago on a rainy night, Rae Kushner, her sister Lisa, along with Sonya and Aaron Oshman, escaped through a narrow tunnel from the Novogrudok ghetto together with 250 other Jews. They hid in an area nearby to elude the pursuing Germans and their collaborators. Many in the group were shot and killed. Rae, Lisa, Sonya, Aaron and others were rescued by the Bielski partisans, who had JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-2464641506867792962023-05-07T10:15:00.000-07:002023-05-09T10:15:26.501-07:00Jewish Partisans Joe (z'') and Rose HolmThis mini-biography tells the story of two Jewish partisans in Poland who fought in Chiel Grynspan's unit and later married one another.
Jewish partisans Rose Duman and Joe Holm were born in neighboring villages near Zaliscze, Poland. In 1941, Germans killed Joe's mother and five brothers, as well as 20 other members of his family. At 19, he entered the forest, where he knew other Jews were JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-83285774761597198422023-05-03T11:17:00.000-07:002023-05-03T11:17:39.894-07:00Featured Jewish Partisan - Norman Salsitz, born on May 6thNorman Salsitz was born May 6, 1920 in Galizia, a small town in southern Poland. Though he had seven different names in his lifetime, Norman Salsitz has always remained the same at his core: tough, resourceful, and honest. The youngest of nine siblings, Norman was among the Jewish inhabitants that were forced into a ghetto in June of 1941 by the Germans. Looking for strong labor, the Germans JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-8130368278092088142023-05-03T09:56:00.000-07:002023-05-03T09:56:10.391-07:00Jewish Partisan Leon Bakst (z''l) was born on May 3, 1923Leon Bakst was one of four siblings born to a wholesale merchant in Ivie, a small Polish town 73 miles west of Minsk. Leon was 15 when the German army invaded eastern Poland in the summer of 1941, occupying Ivie and forcing the town’s Jews into a ghetto.
When the Germans asked Leon’s father what he did for a living, he lied and told the Germans that he was a brush maker. Though he traded in raw JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785982751657055518.post-37234077521049359102023-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:002023-04-21T09:07:55.634-07:00Martin Petrasek (z"l) born on April 21, 1926Martin Petrasek (z"l) was born in Chust, Slovakia in 1926. In 1938, Czechoslovakia became the first victim of Hitler’s expansionist plans when Germany annexed a group of German-speaking regions of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland (Hitler invaded the rest not long after). However, the region of Slovakia was granted autonomy in return for supporting the Nazis and rounding up and deporting JPEF Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09548723084033565639noreply@blogger.com0