Student Union Leads Faculty Ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day, "Doctors Bridge the Holocaust and National Rebirth: Picking Up the Pieces"

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Student Union commemorated Yom HaShoah (Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah) on May 6, 2024.

After convening in the Carasso Auditorium, MD students Raz Croitoru and Elizabeth Shohat, moderated the gathering.

Elizabeth: "As part of my responsibilities leading the student union, I was called upon to plan the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony this year.... This year the topic is particularly sensitive and raises more challenging feelings than in the past. I had a very hard time finding an appropriate topic, and I turned to Dr. Hadas Shasha-Lavsky who suggested we discuss rebirth. I immediately accepted this idea.... I was looking for a small ray of light in all the darkness that has surrounded us  recently. I  also realized that this is the message that I want to convey in the ceremony, a message of hope, of the ability to stand up and choose life. While reading up about Holocaust survivors in general, and the role of doctors in the process of revival and rehabilitation in particular, I discovered a world of real heroes. The doctors who themselves were survivors and suffered serious emotional and physical injuries, found within themselves the strength to help others. Many came to Israel and  were instrumental in establishing the medical system in Israel. Along with the horrors of the Holocaust, hope arose in my heart for a better future. I believe that we have the opportunity and the power to heal and to restore ourselves and those around us."

During the presentation, the audience had the opportunity to learn about the doctors Dr. Leopold Kohlberg, partisan doctors who immigrated to Israel after the war (at the end of 1952 the surviving doctors were about a third of Israel's doctors), Dr. Noah Kaplinsky, Prof. Moshe Prives, Dr. Mordechai Lansky, Dr. Viola and Gabriel Torek. There were also musical interludes.

After the reading of the Yizkor for Doctors by Dr. Mark Dvorzhecki, a candle was lit in memory of the doctors who perished in the Holocaust, and in memory of the doctors who were part of the process of restoration, revival and the establishment of the State of Israel.