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Holocaust survivor visits RE on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust survivor Allan J. Hall visited Ransom Everglades Middle School on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, sharing the history of the Holocaust and his heart-wrenching story of survival with eighth-grade students. Introduced by his great niece, Emma Hall '30, he was one of three featured speakers on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp whose aim was to ensure that RE students never forget the atrocities of that period.
"Once evil gets free and can do anything it wants to, nobody is safe," he told assembled students and faculty at Swenson Hall. "If there is nothing else you remember about my speaking to you, remember that."
As Hall was speaking to the eighth grade, Rebecca Paresky '25 addressed sixth-grade students in the Braman Family Media Center – and a day later her upper school peers in the Lewis Family Auditorium – relaying the survival story her late great-grandfather, who endured five concentration camps. At the same time, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Kelly Levy, spoke to seventh graders in the gymnasium. Relatives of survivors Ava Paresky '29 and Alexa Forgacs '31 offered introductions.
"The conditions were so inhumane and brutal that he would say his survival was 99.9 percent luck and the 1/10 percent was the hope he held onto to see another day," Rebecca Paresky said, referring to her great-grandfather.
At the upper school, Jewish Student Association President Jonah Fishman '25 opened an assembly that remembered and honored survivors and victims of the Holocaust. The event concluded with a recognition of members of the RE community whose relatives were victims of the Holocaust, which was introduced by JSA leaders Dana Chopp '26 and Amelia Lazarus '25. Myriam Gollan, a rabba and administrative assistant to the head of school, led the traditional Jewish hymn for funerals or memorials, "El Maleh Rachamim."
"Holocaust Memorial Day is more than a moment of remembrance; it is a profound responsibility," Fishman said from the Lewis Family Auditorium stage. "It calls on us to confront not just the atrocities of the past, but the lessons they demand of us in the present. Today, we remember the six million Jewish men, women and children whose lives were brutally taken during the Holocaust ... But this day is not only about looking back. It is about asking ourselves: What kind of future do we wish to build?"
Students on both campuses wrote personal reflections on notecards after the talks and pasted their comments on message boards displayed in Swenson Hall and Cameron Hall. Two non-profits dedicated to preserving holocaust stories through the relatives of survivors – 3GMiami and 4G-United, which was founded by Rebecca Paresky – helped organize the assemblies and reflections.
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As Hall was speaking to the eighth grade, Rebecca Paresky '25 addressed sixth-grade students in the Braman Family Media Center – and a day later her upper school peers in the Lewis Family Auditorium – relaying the survival story her late great-grandfather, who endured five concentration camps. At the same time, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Kelly Levy, spoke to seventh graders in the gymnasium. Relatives of survivors Ava Paresky '29 and Alexa Forgacs '31 offered introductions.
"The conditions were so inhumane and brutal that he would say his survival was 99.9 percent luck and the 1/10 percent was the hope he held onto to see another day," Rebecca Paresky said, referring to her great-grandfather.
At the upper school, Jewish Student Association President Jonah Fishman '25 opened an assembly that remembered and honored survivors and victims of the Holocaust. The event concluded with a recognition of members of the RE community whose relatives were victims of the Holocaust, which was introduced by JSA leaders Dana Chopp '26 and Amelia Lazarus '25. Myriam Gollan, a rabba and administrative assistant to the head of school, led the traditional Jewish hymn for funerals or memorials, "El Maleh Rachamim."
"Holocaust Memorial Day is more than a moment of remembrance; it is a profound responsibility," Fishman said from the Lewis Family Auditorium stage. "It calls on us to confront not just the atrocities of the past, but the lessons they demand of us in the present. Today, we remember the six million Jewish men, women and children whose lives were brutally taken during the Holocaust ... But this day is not only about looking back. It is about asking ourselves: What kind of future do we wish to build?"
Students on both campuses wrote personal reflections on notecards after the talks and pasted their comments on message boards displayed in Swenson Hall and Cameron Hall. Two non-profits dedicated to preserving holocaust stories through the relatives of survivors – 3GMiami and 4G-United, which was founded by Rebecca Paresky – helped organize the assemblies and reflections.
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.