Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 100 hear call to action at museum in Glen Cove

One day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day — and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp — nearly 100 people attended a ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center in Glen Cove on Sunday. 

The solemn gathering came as the Jewish community faces a surge of antisemitism across the area and beyond. A recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that nearly half all people worldwide hold "elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes."

Bernie Furshpan, 67, whose parents were born in Poland and survived the Holocaust before emigrating to Israel, delivered the keynote address to those in attendance.

Furshpan focused part of his speech on the 1.5 million Jewish children killed — and a call to action for the future.

"The lost potential of 1.5 million Jewish children, resulting in unfulfilled contributions to medicine, humanitarian and social leaders, unwritten stories, unrealized inventions," Furshpan said. "This is a reminder to cherish and protect the potential within every child today, ensuring no such atrocity can ever happen again."

Furshpan, who travels the area speaking to groups, often schoolchildren, several times a week, spoke of the importance of teaching "the lessons of the Holocaust."

He said he feels moved to share his parents’ story because we are a "very fragile society, and we have to be careful."

"It took Hitler 12 years of propaganda to convince people to vote for him," he said in an interview. "Today, it can take seconds on social media. People can be disinformed, misinformed.

"For the very few people who make a lot of noise, and preach hatred, there are more people that are good," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of people are good. The problem is that they're silent, and they won't speak up. And that's one of the lessons of the Holocaust, is to speak up."

Agi Adler, an 88-year-old-Holocaust survivor from Budapest, was among those in attendance Sunday. Adler did not speak but was called on to light a candle and received a shoutout from Furshpan.

"She was a child, but she made it out, just like my parents," Furshpan said. "She's here today as a testimony of the resilience of the children who survived the darkest chapter in human history."

At the end of the ceremony, guests signed a pledge committing to four action items: Honor the memory of those lost in the Holocaust; stand against intolerance; educate and reflect on the past; and promote tolerance and justice.

Rabbi Ron Csillag, of Syosset, offered a reflection on the phrase "never again," commonly evoked in reference to the Holocaust.

"We will be attacked again, unfortunately. History has gone on for thousands of years, and Jews get attacked," Csillag said during the ceremony. “’Never again’ really means that from now on, we fight back, we kick, we scream."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.