Holidays and Festivals

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Purim Celebrations through the years

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Yom Hashoah 

In observance of Yom Hashoah, we will host a woman originally from Lowell, MA, Szifra Birke, who will watch a documentary with us about her parents, who owned a clothing store in Lowell, called ‘Berke’s’.  The documentary is called ‘Browsing Through Birke’s.’  She will recount her experiences growing up as the child of Holocaust survivors who eendured devastating trauma during the war.  The documentary will be shown at CBI on Sunday afternoon, April 19, 2026 at 3 pm.

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Previous observances:

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On April 24, 2025 we hosted a program featuring a Holocaust survivor, Endre (Andy) Sarkany, who spoke to us about his experience living in a Budapest ghetto during the Holocaust. His father was taken to the Mathausen concentration camp in 1944, and fortunately he survived. That presentation has been saved in the cloud, and you can watch it in a Dropbox video….here is the link: Holocaust Remembrance Day Presentation 2025

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Yom Hashoah Program 2023 with Holocaust survivor, Judy Altmann

Judy Altmann was born in Jasina Czechoslovakia, which was invaded by the Nazis in 1939. In 1944 she was arrested and transported to Auschwitz concentration camp with her niece where they were selected for work. From there she was sent to Essen and Gelsenkirchen Labour camps where she remained until March 1945. She survived the “death march” that ended in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Sick with typhus, Judy was barely alive when she was liberated by the British Army in 1945.

Ms. Altmann was given the opportunity to go to Sweden. She lived in Sweden until 1948 at which time she immigrated to the United States.

Judy, who has extensive experience speaking in schools, is a member of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Speakers Bureau and is Vice President of the Holocaust Child Survivors of Connecticut.

Purim 2020  (during the lockdown)