Monthly DEIJ Celebrations: January – Jewish Heritage Month

For more information on this monthly-series, please be sure to read the original post, published on August 25, in the Parent Post, written by E-chieh Lin, the Director of Inclusion and Wellbeing. 

• Read about August - Diverse Families & Self
• Read about September - SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African)
• Read about October - Pride
• Read about November - Indigenous Heritage Month
• Read about December - Latine and Hispanic Heritage Month

In the United States, Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month are celebrated together in May.

At TAS, we would like to celebrate and honor these cultures on their own months, Jewish Heritage Month in January and Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander/Desi Heritage (AAPIDA) Month in May. 

We celebrate Jewish Heritage Month in January because on November 1, 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution to designate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. This day is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Each year, the UN designates a theme for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  For 2024, the theme is Recognizing the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust.  

In celebrating and honoring Jewish Heritage Month, we are focusing on themes for Holocaust Remembrance Day by sharing some stories of Holocaust survivors:   

Simone Veil was born in 1927 in Nice, France. On March 28, 1944, Veil used her real name to obtain her baccalauréat, the French high school diploma, and two days later her family was arrested and deported to concentration camps in Germany.  She wondered if taking the entrance exams that day gave away her family’s Jewish identity. Veil and her two sisters survived the Holocaust.  After the war, Veil became a political force for women’s rights.  She became France's first female Minister of Health in 1975 and the first female president of the European Parliament in 1979.  Her most remembered contribution was legalizing abortion in France in 1975.  Veil was elected to the French Academy (Académie Française), becoming the sixth woman to join the “Immortals” of the Academy. Later in life, Veil authored a number of texts including her autobiography in 2007, Une Vie (A Life). Veil passed away on June 20, 2017.  Her remains were transferred from Montparnasse cemetery to the Panthéon shortly after her passing. She is only the fifth woman to be interred in the Panthéon for her merits and the first person from the Fifth Republic.   

Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Romania.  Wiesel and his family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944.  Wiesel and his father were later sent to Buchenwald.  Wiesel and his older sisters, Beatrice and Hilda, were the only member of their immediate family to survive the Nazi concentration camp.  After World War II, Wiesel moved to France to finish his education and build his career as a journalist.  Wiesel published many books, including Night, which recounts his experiences with his father in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was also an activist who spoke out against injustices, as well as a Boston University Andrew W. Mellon Professor in Humanities.  He was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the French Legion of Honor’s Grand Croix, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize.  The Nobel citation honoring Wiesel stated: “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind.  His message is one of peace, atonement, and human dignity.  His belief that the forces fight evil in the world can be victorious is a hard-won belief.” 

Edith Eger was born in September 27, 1927 in Czechoslovakia, which later became part of Hungary in 1938.  Eger wanted to become a gymnast to compete in the Olympics, but in 1942 when the Hungarian government enacted anti-Jewish laws, she was told by her trainer that she would need to train with someone else because she was Jewish. In May of 1944, Eger and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Eger shared that in Auschwitz she would dance for Doctor Mengele for a piece of bread.  She would share the bread with everyone because they were a family of inmates. After liberation, Eger shared that realizing she would never see her parents again hit her hard, and she became suicidal.  She reflects in a History channel interview that she turned all the tragedy into an opportunity for herself, not only to survive, but to help guide other people to survive as well.  Eger became a clinical psychologist helping survivors of trauma, including veterans.  She is the author of The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life.