Interview with Jewish partisan and photographer Faye Schulman

JPEF: You must have many days of personal reflection and remembrance. How is Yom HaShoah v’HaGevurah different?

Schulman: This is the day when most people remember the Shoah. For me, it is not that different than any other day because I think about it all the time. Every day is Yom HaShoah.

JPEF: What lessons would you like to share with young people today?

Schulman: That there was a resistance and Jews did not go like lambs to the slaughter. Jews resisted—they fought back!

JPEF: What do you think is important about Yom HaShoah v’HaGevurah?

Schulman: I think it is important for future generations, not those of past generations who remember it quite clearly. As I said already, for me one day is not any different than the other—it is my responsibility to remember it and speak about what happened every day.

To learn more about Faye and the photography exhibit, please visit

Faye Schulman's biography and Pictures of Resistance

Photo source: A Partisan's Memoir, Second Story Press, p. 139

Upcoming JPEF Educator TeleForum Relates Jewish Partisan Life Lessons to Today's Headlines

Register Now for the Thursday, March 18th Conference Call

President Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Source: http://www.media.cleveland.com/

When: Thursday, March 18th from 3:30-4:15 PM (PST)

Confronting Evil: A discussion about the present and the past.

This forum - first in a proposed series - will help educators connect the life lessons of the Jewish partisans with recent world events and your students' lives.

The call will discuss the remarks made by President Obama during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. In his speech, he talked about the need for a forceful response to al-Qaeda: “Evil does exist in the world…To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism—it is a recognition of history…" In addition, we will also discuss this topic from the Jewish partisans perspective. JPEF interviewed Simon Trakinski, a Jewish partisan from Lithuania, shortly after the September 11 tragedy in which he said, “When you fight evil, you can’t be a saint….how can you preserve your principles and solve the problem?” In that context Trakinski went on to say, "Evil will only recognize stronger evil."

How does a society deal with this kind of "evil"? How do people negotiate with those who want to kill them in the first place? Can there even be negotiations? These, amongst other questions will be discussed.

For more information and to register, please e-mail RSVP@jewishpartisans.org.

If you would like to suggest a future topic, please contact David Kaplan, Development Manager, via e-mail at davidk@jewishpartisans.org

JPEF Video for Slingshot

JPEF was fortunate enough to be acknowledged as one of the top 50 most innovative Jewish organizations for four years by Slingshot, a program of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. When we received recognition of this in October, we were also awarded a $40,000 grant and given a Flip camera to record programs and happenings for a midterm grant report -- vs. having to write one. This is the product of those Flip clips and takes the viewer to Zurich, Tennessee, California, Florida, and Washington DC where we ran programs that will ultimately affect tens of thousands of people. Having a little film/video background we had to edit it a little, add a little music. FAR from polished, but will give a five minute glimpse of what we have been up to from Oct 2009- Feb 2010.

Queen Esther, our Heroine of Purim, Foreshadows Jewish Partisan Experience

The dramatic story of Purim, filled with deception, betrayal, and murder, as well as a beautiful woman’s heroism and the implausible victory of the Jewish people against all odds, provides a timely and unique perspective on the Jewish partisan experience of modern history.

Applying the lens of the Purim story to contextualize the Jewish partisans deepens our overall understanding of Jewish history. The King’s initial attraction to Esther allowed her to use her beauty as a shield to hide behind. When, after becoming Queen, she decides to reveal her Jewish identity, her bravery in undeniable. “I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16) Keeping Esther’s bravery in mind, it is easy to draw a parallel to the incredibly courageous acts of the partisans.

Like Esther, many Jewish partisans during World War II were in life or death situations, which forced them to hide their identity as a Jew. For first person testimony from partisans which invokes the Purim story, spend some time on Norman Salsitz’ bio on the JPEF website which describes his experience hiding his identity. You might also be interested in the clip from Eta Wrobel called “Eta’s beautiful hair saves her life” which can be found here