“How old were you when you saved Haim?” one of the students asked Modesta Baranek. When Modesta answered “Fifteen” the students whispered amongst themselves “Just like us”.
This session with rescuer Modesta Baranek took place at the Ayalon High School in Holon. Every year the city of Holon honors a Righteous Among the Nations. The municipality offers a prize to volunteers, following in the footsteps of righteous acts. The event takes place symbolically the day before Hanukkah.
This year, the Ayalon high school approached ATZUM, asking for help in bringing rescuers to come speak to students and take part in a school ceremony in their honor.
Modesta Baranek, born in Poland, spoke about how at age fifteen she went to the forest to pick mushrooms and ended up saving a person’s life. She was accompanied by her partner, Tsvi, a Holocaust survivor.
Esther Grinberg, originally from Holland, also attended and told the students about how her family hid four Jews in their home and lost her father due to his activity in the Dutch resistance.
The granddaughter of rescuer Ivan Vranetic z”l is a teacher at the school. She spoke about Ivan saving her grandmother and showed footage from an interview filmed by ATZUM where Ivan told his story.
During the ceremony, the school principal asked that during one night of the holiday, while lighting the Hanukkah candles, each of the students think of the Righteous Among the Nations, lights among the darkness of humanity. We ask that you do the same.
Hanukkah Sameach
Yael Rosen
Project Coordinator, Righteous Among the Nations
