Stephen Wise Temple and Wise Schools Present: Yom HaShoah Memorial Service & Survivor Testimony
Thursday, April 18, 10:30 a.m. | Main Sanctuary | Watch Online
On Thursday, April 28, our Wise School fifth and sixth graders and parents will hear the story of a Holocaust survivor, and take part in a memorial service for Yom HaShoah, our day of remembrance for those murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Because of the profound importance of preserving and disseminating survivor testimony, we are inviting our entire Wise community to watch and listen to the livestream online. You can stream it by visiting WiseLA.org/Online on the day of the event. The event will be recorded, and the video made available after its conclusion.
About the event: Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, Cantor Emma Lutz, Rabbi Josh Knobel, and our fifth and sixth grade Wise School students—under the leadership of Judaic Studies Director Malka Clement—will commemorate the six million Jewish lives lost during the Shoah in our Main Sanctuary. They will then discover the experience of the Shoah through the lens of Trudie Strobel, a child Holocaust survivor who shares her journey through art, embroidery, and story.
About Trudie Strobel: Before World War II even began, Trudie’s father fell victim to Josef Stalin’s Campaigns of Terror. When Trudie was 4, she and her mother Masha were taken from their home by the Nazis and herded over 600 miles, first to the Lodz Ghetto and then to a labor camp. An incomparable seamstress, Masha was put to work wherever they landed. Sewing saved their lives. Sewing bought them enough precious time to see liberation. However, this was not the end of their persecution, as they bounced from displacement camp to homes for the displaced. As the years passed, Masha continued to sew to make ends meet, and they never abandoned their dream of coming to America.
When they finally arrived in America, Trudie married and had two sons. Life was busy, and neither she nor her survivor husband ever spoke of the past. In her fifties, with her sons grown and out of the house, the traumas of her childhood came surging back and she suffered a complete breakdown. Because Trudie had stopped talking, a therapist suggested she attempt to express herself by drawing, so she began to draw. Soon, she began to stitch her drawings, and now, they are how she tells her story.