In order not to split the community for such an important event in Israel's calendar, ESRA Modiin joined with the English speaking Levonah Chapter of Hadassah-Israel in the city to organize an evening to mark Yom HaShoah. With the backing of the municipality, members of both organizations, many of whom are dual members, packed the room in the local cultural center to hear two amazing speakers talk about their two mothers who were in the Kindertransport prior to the outbreak of WWII.
Greetings were brought by Sami Attar, CEO of Sachlavim, the municipal organization which oversees all informal extracurricular activities in Modiin. He was standing in for Deputy Mayor Shlomo Passy, who had been called away at the last minute. Sami was followed by Carol Lipman, Membership Chair of ESRA Modiin, whose late mother, Eva Covo, an only child, had been spirited away to the UK as a teenager. Carol's eloquent account of her mother's enormous resilience was awe-inspiring and one could hear a pin drop throughout her moving account of their family's story.
Sandy Regev, whose mother, Mimi Nadelbach, was sitting in the audience, movingly recounted Mimi's flight with her three siblings on the Kindertransport, their stay in Belgium and eventual travel to safety in the USA. Mimi lost both her parents and an older sister in the Holocaust. Today she is the matriarch of a huge family with many great-grandchildren.
Following a brief Q&A session, Gerry Wine led the 100-strong gathering in a rousing rendition of Hatikvah- a perfect end to an extremely powerful and unforgettable evening.