JPEF Education Manager Jonathan Furst visits Prague, Terezin

JPEF’s Education Manager, Jonathan Furst, traveled to Prague last week to attend the 2012 European League for Middle Level Education Conference. When he was not busy presenting at the conference, Jonathan attended a guided tour of Terezin.

Terezin is a fortress and a town that sits across from the Ohře river in the Czech Republic. Built in the late 1700s by the Hapsburg Monarchy, Terezin was a military town for over two centuries. It was first utilized as a prison in the second half of the 19th century, and housed political prisoners of both World Wars – including Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

During World War II, the Gestapo converted part of Terezin into a Jewish ghetto, interning over 144,000 Jews throughout the course of the war – 33,000 died within its walls due to hunger, disease, and sadistic treatment; only 17,000 prisoners survived. It was also used as a transit camp for European Jews on their way to Auschwitz, and a part of Terezin called the Small Fortress also served as a Gestapo prison for Allied POWs.

Terezin also gained notoriety because the majority of Jews interned there were artists, musicians, professionals, and scholars – their captors encouraged them to lead “creative” lives and even erected and concert venues as a ploy to fool the International Red Cross.

During the guided tour, Jonathan led an impromptu seminar with over twenty European school-teachers participating.

“It was so moving to teach about the spectrum of Jewish resistance in the same place where Jews famously resisted through art, prayer, love and so many other ways – particularly in documenting the reality of the horrors behind the Nazi’s façade of ‘spa’ for elderly Jews.”

“Thanks to Trudi van der Tak for an informative and deeply moving tour, and for inviting me to teach about the wider spectrum of Jewish resistance.”

Featured Jewish Partisan - Jeff Gradow, born on January 5, 1925

"When, at lunchtime, when the German was sitting down and eating and resting, I slid down to a ditch across the highway and I ran in the wood. It was very wooded area. Some of the places you could go for miles, 10-15 miles and not see a human being or civilization. A few minutes, as soon as I ran away, it looks like, they went to counting and one was missing, I could hear shooting from, from, like, I don't know exactly what they did, but they were shooting in the wood, in my direction where I ran away. And that is the first time I felt like a free human being, even I didn't know where the heck I'm going to go, or what I'm going to do."
— Jeff Gradow.

Jeff Gradow was born in 1925 in a small town near Warsaw. When Poland was invaded in 1939, he and his father fled east into Soviet territory. In East Poland, his father got work in a factory in Bialystok and Jeff went to Russian school, soon becoming fluent in the language. When Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion into the Soviet Union, was launched in 1941, Jeff was taken to work as a laborer for the Germans, digging mass graves that he feared would be his own.

Eventually, Jeff took his chances and escaped into the forest. The partisan encampment he found lacked weapons and intelligence contacts needed to target nearby German troops. However, in the spring of 1943 the Soviets made contact with the group, airdropping weapons and explosives to them and sending in professional Russian paratroopers armed with short-wave radios. Reorganized by the paratroopers and boasting a much larger stockpile, the brigade began to fight in earnest. They carried out hit and run sniper attacks, mined roads, and cut phone lines. As the front began to move west, the brigade stood guard over the local bridges, preventing them from being destroyed by retreating Germans and holding them long enough to allow the Soviet tanks to cross.

In the summer of 1944, Bialystok and Baronovich were liberated by the Soviets and Jeff's partisan group was absorbed by the Red Army. He was sent to the front and later discharged after being shot in the hand by a sniper. He convalesced in a hospital outside of Moscow, and by the time he recovered, Berlin was occupied and the war was almost over. He fled Russia and entered West Germany, eventually making his way to the United States. Today, Jeff lives in Los Angeles. He has two grown children and three grandchildren.

Visit www.jewishpartisans.org for more about Jeff Gradow, including six videos of him reflecting on his time as a partisan.

Noted philanthropist and long-time JPEF supporter Warren Hellman passes away

San Francisco philanthropist, financier, and supporter of JPEF, Warren Hellman, died Sunday, December 18, 2011 at age 77 of Leukemia. While most know him for his incredible business skills, generosity of spirit, and annual “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass” music festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the Board and staff of JPEF will also remember Warren for his generous support of JPEF over the past five years with his wife Chris through the Hellman Family Foundation.

Their philanthropy enabled JPEF to conduct scores of Educator Institutes in the Bay Area and across the globe, impacting thousands of educators and hundreds of thousands of students through the history and life lessons of the Jewish partisans. They also helped build our E-Learning Platform, providing educators with easily accessible training on the use of our cutting-edge educational content. The family was instrumental in the support of JPEF’s international photography exhibit, Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman, which has toured the world thanks to the Hellmans, and is coming to Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco this summer. We will dedicate the San Francisco showing to his memory.

Warren Hellman was a great man, whose impact was felt everywhere. He was beloved by many, and we hope his example for using his significant resources and influence for making the world a much better place with such unique passion and enthusiasm will be emulated by others for many generations to come.

Public services will be held Wednesday, December 21, at 1pm at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.

JPEF will be at NCSS this weekend!

JPEF will be at the NCSS (National Council for the Social Studies) Annual Conference this week in Washington DC. Visit us at booth 428 for free DVDs, posters and curricula, as we promote our new E-Learning Platform. All attendees can join us at our free workshop at 4:20pm this Friday – RESIST: Defying the Myth of Sheep to the Slaughter, taught by JPEF’s Education Manager Jonathan Furst.

We look forward to introducing our programs and materials to the 3,500 educators attending NCSS and getting feedback from those who are using our curricula. Last year we had over 450 educators come to our booth to receive free JPEF materials.

To learn more about the NCSS Annual Conference, go here.

This Month in Jewish Partisan History: Borszczower Bande Liberates Prisoners on November 17, 1943

The Borszczower Bande was a small yet bold resistance group formed by Jews from the Borszczow ghetto in western Ukraine. The leaders were Wolf Ashendorf, Joel Weintraub, Kalman Schwartz and a Jewish soldier of the Red Army named Lyoveh.

The Borszczower Bande was a small yet bold resistance group formed by Jews from the Borszczow ghetto in western Ukraine. The leaders were Wolf Ashendorf, Joel Weintraub, Kalman Schwartz and a Jewish soldier of the Red Army named Lyoveh.

Before the ghetto was liquidated by a series of aktions, resistance groups formed. “In October 1941 we started to organize ourselves,” said B. W. Ben-Barak, a member of the Borszczower partisan group. Gathering small arms weaponry, the resistance managed to escape into the forest before the ghetto was ordered to be liquidated in 1943. Throughout that summer, they carried out attacks on Ukrainian policemen and nationalist groups.

Group photo of attending partisans at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

In November 1943, the Borszczower Bande then planned an attack on the German prison in Borszczow. Led by Ashendorf, they released all fifty prisoners on November 17. This brazen victory overshadowed their demise. After facing hostility from locals, the Bande was attacked by a much larger group of German forces. They inflicted casualties on the Germans, but the Borszczower group’s losses were greater and they were forced to disperse. Some who fled found no choice but to commit suicide, their last defense against dehumanization. Those others who survived joined with Kovpak’s soviet partisan brigade.

Jewish Partisans honored in New York City

Over 55 Jewish partisans gathered together in New York City on November 6th and 7th to commemorate the enduring legacy they share and to be honored at the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation’s 2011 Tribute Dinner. Traveling from throughout the United States, many with children, grandchildren and even some great-grandchildren in tow, they reconnected with friends and quickly rekindled the strong bonds that will forever unite them.

The celebration began with a Sunday afternoon reception for partisans and their family members, hosted by JPEF, at the Park East Synagogue. Laughter resonated throughout the space as partisans embraced one another, tears of joy welling in their eyes. For many, this was the first time they had seen one another in over sixty-five years. Allen Small, who traveled from Palm Beach Gables, Florida, was overjoyed to be reunited with Leon Bakst who came from Dallas, Texas.

Over 400 guests packed the stylish art deco Edison Ballroom the following evening to formally recognize and honor the courage and sacrifice demonstrated by these Jewish partisans during World War II. Mistress of Ceremonies Dana Tyler, Senior News Anchor for WCBS-TV and actor and Emmy winner Edward Asner, the cousin of partisan Abe Asner, paid tribute to each of the honorees. With their black and white partisan photograph projected on screen, each partisan was individually honored and identified by name, country of birth and the partisan group in which they served. In all there were 23 women and 33 men, representing brigades from Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Ukraine, Russia and France. Included among the attending partisans were six married couples, three sets of siblings, a rabbi, a cantor and a mohel.

Guests watched in awe as each partisan, most in their eighties and nineties, stood to accept their honor with the same characteristic strength and determination that empowered them to fight back so many years before.

In his address Asner stated, “JPEF is important because it puts the legacy of the Jewish partisans front and center, as no other organization does. It stays committed to its mission and does not deviate.”

Lauren Feingold, granddaughter of partisans Dr. Charles Bedzow and Sara Golcman Bedzow also spoke. As the first third generation representative to the JPEF Board, Lauren worked closely with her grandfather, who serves as JPEF’s Honorary International Chairman, to promote the Tribute Dinner and guarantee its success. Like Lauren, many of those involved in the recently formed 3G group, are already working to ensure that young people everywhere are empowered by their grandparent’s examples, and she challenged her peers to join in this quest. She was followed by Charles who spoke movingly to his fellow partisans reminding them that they share a unique and important legacy; one which must be passed from generation to generation.

In a fitting testament to this charge, Cantor Shira Ginsburg, grandaugher of partisan Judith Ginsburg, closed the event with a performance of the song “Who Am I”, about her family and the inspiration of her grandmother’s partisan legacy. As Shira’s beautiful voice filled the room, more than forty third generation teens and young adults raised white candles high, signaling their commitment to keep the flame alive.

JPEF extends its sincere appreciation to event co-chairperons Esther-Ann Asch, Suzanne and Elliott Felson, Kim and Jonathan Kushner and Diane and Howard Wohl for their dedication to ensuring the success of this remarkable event.

Links to press materials about the event:
Jerusalem Post article.
Jewish Week article.
An article in the Algemeiner.
WCBS nightly news video.
More photos from the event on our Flickr page.

Partisan Legacy Honored in New York City

Fifty-five surviving partisans, many traveling from as far away as California, Colorado and Tennessee, attended the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's Tribute Dinner on Monday, December 7th. For many, this was the first time that they had seen one another in over 60 years. Allen Small and Leon Bakst were reunited for the first time since the War. Growing up together in a small town, in what is now Belarus, they attended the same school. Fighting with different partisan brigades during the war, they had last seen each other at a DP camp in Germany before coming to the United States. Another partisan stated that this was one of the “best nights of his life.”

Group photo of attending partisans at the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

NEW YORK (JTA) — Allen Small, 83, and Leon Bakst, 86, hugged each other so tight, Small said, “I couldn’t let go.”

Their embrace at a synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side was 65 years in the making.

Small and Bakst grew up a few houses apart in Ivye, Belarus, attending the same school and synagogue before reality turned black, back when their names were Avraham Schmulewitz and Leibel Bakst, and Ivye belonged to Poland and the Nazis had not yet invaded. They last saw each another in 1946 at a displaced persons camp in Munich.

During the two years preceding their liberation by the Red Army in 1944, the then teenagers fought the Nazis in separate brigades in the vast Nalibotskaya Pushcha forest. For their daring, Small, now living in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and Bakst, of Dallas, along with 53 other Jewish partisans from across the United States, were honored here at a synagogue reception Nov. 6 and a gala dinner the next evening.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Click here to read another article about this event from the New York Jewish Week.

Click here to view a video about this event that aired on CBS News New York.