Remember Us B'nai Mitzvah Project
The Remember Us program invites B’nai Mitzvah students from around the world to remember a child who died in the Holocaust by “twinning” with that person at the B’nai Mitzvah’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah. The B'nai Mitzvah student learns about a particular child who was lost during the Holocaust, performs mitzvot in their memory, reads Torah at his or her Bar or Bat Mitzvah in the child’s honor, speaks about him or her in their D'var Torah, and lights a yahrtzeit candle each year in their memory. Many students also create some kind of project to share the information they have learned.
More than 14,000 children from more than 520 congregations participate in this program as a way to remember those who perished. I have decided to twin with my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai Heinflink as a way of personalizing the Remember Us experience.
In order to remember my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai I conducted research to learn what I could about my cousins and their family. I emailed my mom-mom’s first cousin, Marta, from Buenos Aires to learn about the Heinflink family – Cruce, Fiszl, Eliezer, and Mordechai. I learned a great deal from her and am very grateful for her support of my remembrance project. Eliezer and Mordechai were also Marta’s first cousins. I also searched the Yad Vashem database where I found testimonials for Cruce and Fiszl from another first cousin, who now lives in Monterrey, Mexico.
I researched about the town of Zaklikow, and learned about the shtetl where my cousins were born. My research took me to the Jewishgen.org Holocaust database, where I found Joshua Laks’ book – a book he wrote to commemorate the town of Zaklikow and its residents who died during the Holocaust. He was one of the few survivors and considered it his responsibility to “remember” for others. Joshua Laks’ book contains a Yitzkor section (meaning “remember”) that lists my family as “Fishl Heinflink and family.”
When I learned that my cousins had died in Belzec, I decided to also learn more about Belzec concentration camp. Now that I have traced their lives from the town of Zaklikow to their final horrific destination at Belzec, I feel I am ready to fully remember my cousins, Eliezer and Mordechai, so their names may continue to live on through my actions.
More than 14,000 children from more than 520 congregations participate in this program as a way to remember those who perished. I have decided to twin with my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai Heinflink as a way of personalizing the Remember Us experience.
In order to remember my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai I conducted research to learn what I could about my cousins and their family. I emailed my mom-mom’s first cousin, Marta, from Buenos Aires to learn about the Heinflink family – Cruce, Fiszl, Eliezer, and Mordechai. I learned a great deal from her and am very grateful for her support of my remembrance project. Eliezer and Mordechai were also Marta’s first cousins. I also searched the Yad Vashem database where I found testimonials for Cruce and Fiszl from another first cousin, who now lives in Monterrey, Mexico.
I researched about the town of Zaklikow, and learned about the shtetl where my cousins were born. My research took me to the Jewishgen.org Holocaust database, where I found Joshua Laks’ book – a book he wrote to commemorate the town of Zaklikow and its residents who died during the Holocaust. He was one of the few survivors and considered it his responsibility to “remember” for others. Joshua Laks’ book contains a Yitzkor section (meaning “remember”) that lists my family as “Fishl Heinflink and family.”
When I learned that my cousins had died in Belzec, I decided to also learn more about Belzec concentration camp. Now that I have traced their lives from the town of Zaklikow to their final horrific destination at Belzec, I feel I am ready to fully remember my cousins, Eliezer and Mordechai, so their names may continue to live on through my actions.
In Memoriam
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Click the DONATE button to go to the Remember Us organization home page and click the Make a Donation button.
