Limmud FSU Global Leadership Summit Program, Sighet, Romania, 2013

The document is a formal invitation to a conference-debate held on Tuesday, February 25, 2014, in Marseille. The event is organized by H.A.C (Handicap Amitié Culture - Cercle d'Etude "Elie Wiesel") and OSE (Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants). The central theme is "L'OSE et Élie Wiesel, passé et avenir. Quel horizon pour demain...?" (OSE and Elie Wiesel, past and future. What horizon for tomorrow...?).
The guest speakers are Patricia Sitruk, Director General of OSE; Katy Hazan, Historian at OSE; Michaël de Saint Cheron, a writer and humanist; and Guila Clara Kessous, a UNESCO Artist for Peace. The invitation provides the address, phone number, and email for H.A.C. for inquiries and reservations. The event was to be followed by a cocktail reception.

An invitation from President and Mrs. Obama for a reception held at The White House on Thursday, February 25, 2010, at four o'clock. The reception is on the occasion of the presentation of the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal. Attendees are directed to the Southeast Entrance.

Ari Fuhrman was born in Czernowitz, Bukovina, Romania. His father was a tailor. After living briefly in Vienna, the family returned to Czernowitz instead of going to Palestine. He talks about his family’s life, religious observance, his education, Communist and Zionist movements, and the cultural life of Jews in Czernowitz. He was apprenticed as a dental mechanic in 1938.

Germany invaded Czernowitz together with the Romanian army after a brief Russian occupation. Massacres of Jews began and a ghetto was established until most Jews had been deported. Ari, and 80 family members were deported to Transnistria in October 1941 by sealed train. He graphically describes the transport, how Romanians brutalized and robbed the deportees. Some Jews, including his family, managed to escape during a stop in Mogilev.

Ari and his family could live and work in the Mogilev ghetto because he was classified as a “useful Jew”. He describes cultural activities, religious observance, illness, starvation, and strategies his family used to survive. In 1943 the Jewish Federation of Bucharest tried to rescue Jewish orphans and the American Joint Distribution Committee sent aid. Kapos (Jewish Police) had to provide a certain number of Jews each day for transports. He describes conditions just before and after liberation by the Russians, when partisans briefly controlled the area. He was reunited with his parents in Czernowitz until, as part of an exchange between Russia and Romania, Ari went to Timisoara, Romania, in 1946. He stayed for 11 years, worked as a dentist, and joined Mishmar, a Zionist organization. He registered to go to Palestine but did not receive permission to leave until 1959. He joined the State Theater of Bucharest and later the TeatronHaolim (Theatre of the Newcomers) in Israel. He was reunited with his parents after emigrating to the United States in 1960.

Testimony of his wife, Chayale Ash-Fuhrman, a prominent Yiddish actress, is also in the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive collection.

This document is a program for "An Evening with Elie Wiesel," an event held on May 6, 2012, at the Cintas Center at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. The program highlights the life and accomplishments of Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor, author, and human rights advocate. Organized by The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, and Xavier University, the booklet outlines the evening's schedule, provides a detailed biography of Wiesel, and acknowledges numerous sponsors and partner organizations. It also describes the various educational programs and initiatives offered by The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, such as exhibits, awareness programs, educator training, and a student contest, all focused on promoting Holocaust remembrance, human rights, and social justice.

Rabbi Relles born in Skala, Poland June 2, 1908 lived in Italy from 1933 to 1944. He studied at a university and a rabbinical college. He explains how he managed to remain in Italy as a student. He describes Mussolini’s treatment of Jews and his changing attitude towards Hitler. Even after anti-Jewish laws were passed in1938, and his arrest and brief internment in June 1940 first in Campagna, then in Ferramonti, he was treated extremely well by the Italians.

In December 1943, after police warned Jews they would be arrested, Rabbi Relles tried to flee. He was arrested near the Swiss border and detained first at a Questara in Como, then at a barracks in Camerlata in Northern Italy.

He describes his escape to Milan, stays at various safe houses, and living in a rest home under a false name, using papers giving him a new identity, helped by individual Italians, nuns and a committee that worked to rescue Jews. He explains how he survived and gives a very detailed account of his escape to Switzerland in April 1944 - when he was brought to Como from Milan as part of a group rescue organized by a Mrs. Comelli. He cites many instances of help by non-Jews and kind treatment from Italians during this period. He arrived in the United States from Switzerland November 8, 1951.

Interviewee: RELLES, Rabbi Mayer Date: June 27, 1983

Miriam tells her aunt Rebecca about the complicated administrative and financial issues at her synagogue and comments on other religious writings.