Dear Friend,

Welcome to the March newsletter.

My name is Yael and I am thrilled to join the March of the Living Australia team as administrator. Stepping into the shoes of Matan (whom you have gotten to know so well over the four years of his service to the organisation) will be no mean feat but I look forward to the journey and getting to know and work with our MOTL community over time. I am very excited to be participating in the program this year with my son Josh and experience first-hand the important work the organisation does. I would like to thank Matan for his support during the transition period and for the warm welcome so far.

We've had a very busy month at MOTL which included the first get together of all the participants going on the upcoming march and this coming month is going to be even busier as we prepare for Pesach and our departure on the 2023 March of the Living program.

In this edition (if viewing this on a desktop, click on each heading to skip to that section):

Earlier this month we held our first get together for our 2023 MOTL participants. It was great getting to meet everyone even if via zoom only and to start making connections. The excitement was palpable. In addition to Shirley Atlas, who has been a MOTL educator and Committee of Management member since 2005, providing a quick overview and contextualisation on Jewish life before the war, Hitler's rise to power and a brief chronology of the Holocaust we also heard from each participant the motivation behind them coming on the journey as well as a brief presentation by members of the TAG Digital team (who assist us with our digital marketing and communications) who explained how important it was for the participants to share their journey via Social Media so that the larger community may be exposed to the deep and meaningful impact that this program has on its participants.

In our next newsletter we will feature further details on how you will be able to vicariously (through our participants input on social media) 'go where history books can't".

If you are interested in actually joining the program in 2024 - we are already accepting Expressions of Interest for our 2024 programs  so click on the button below if you would like to be added to our mailing list and to receive details about our 2024 program.

We are proud to welcome Galina Lochekhina, a Cultural Heritage and Holocaust researcher who is an alumna of the graduate school at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the Weiss - Livnat International MA Program in Holocaust Studies at Haifa University.

Galina will discuss what it meant for people under the most inhumane conditions to make chess sets; what

the cost of making such objects was; and what people were willing to give up to stay in the  game. This talk will examine a wide range of objects made in Ghetto Theresienstadt. It illuminates the creative responses of people in extreme situations, depicting emotions and life under persecution.

On Sunday 19 February we welcomed internationally-renowned cellist Friederike Fechner.  Friederike spoke about her fascinating journey of research which began when she and her husband purchased and renovated a decrepit townhouse in Stralsund on Germany's Baltic coast. Discovering that the house formerly belonged to a Jewish couple, Selma and Julius Blach (who owned a leatherware factory), Friederike began researching the Blach descendants and finally connected family members who had never heard of one another before.  For her research she was awarded with the Obermayer Award and the Federal Cross of Merit in 2021.

We would like to wish Jack Meister a warm Mazal Tov on receiving an OAM for service to the Jewish community of Sydney, an award well overdue and definitely well deserved!

Jack was born in Kielce, Poland in 1928m and remembers when the Nazis came when he was just 1. In 1941 Jack and his family were sent to the Kielce ghetto where Jack was ordered into forced labour. He was transferred to Radom labour camp in 1942, and was later incarcerated in Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Buna concentration camps. At the age of 18, in April 1945, Jack was liberated by American soldiers. He spent two years  rehabilitating in Switzerland before immigrating to Australia at the end of 1949.

Jack joined the 2019 Adult March of the Living Australia delegation as our Survivor and instantaneously won every single participants' heart through his total selflessness, joie de vivre, infectious smile and positive spirit, despite everything he endured. Having the privilege of sharing this experience with Jack was the epitome of what MOTL Australia lives for and by – 'going where history books can't – and for many was the 'highlight' of the experience. The special bonds formed between many of the participants and Jack over those two weeks continues to this day where a number of participants make a point of meeting with Jack regularly and a large portion of the 2019 delegation got together for a mini reunion together with Jack in Sydney a few weeks ago.

All of us at March of the Living Australia were incredibly saddened to hear of the recent passing

of Jozeph de Haan, Z"L at the age of 100. Joe, as we knew him, very kindly told us part of his story at a virtual event we hosted on  22  May last year (see the recording here)  and we even discussed the possibility of a second event where he could expand and tell us more. Sadly this did not materialise. Whilst we at MOTL only shared Joe's company for a very brief period the warmth, kindness, chavershaft and menschkeit simply oozed forth from him and we will miss him dearly!!

In their obituary his children, Judy de Haan and Michael de Haan said:

" Jozeph was born on 12 October 1922 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he spent his childhood years. His happy youth was interrupted by the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, followed by several years of avoiding Nazi roundup whilst in hiding in the northern province of Friesland. Despite these early hardships, Jozeph maintained a love in his heart for all he encountered, living a long and fulfilling life.

As a holocaust survivor, Jozeph became an educator of these dark days, sharing his story of bravery and resilience with school children at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, and inspiring generations to come with his messages of love and hope. Jozeph was an all-round gentleman, who was known for his charismatic personality and his love of cooking, particularly his famous orange cake and Dutch Applemous dessert.

Our Dad was married for over 60 years to his beloved wife, Cecilia z"l, also a Holocaust survivor, whom he met soon after the end of the war. Together they successfully created a new life in both South Africa, where Jozeph carried on the family tradition as a butcher, and then eventually as a retiree in Australia."

We wish Judy, Michael his grandchildren, Dylan and Jordan and his whole family a long life - may Jozeph's life be a light and blessing to us all.

As you may already know from one of our previous newsletters, our stalwart Admin person, Matan Franco, has moved on from his part time work with March of the Living Australia and I, Cedric Geffen, President of March of the Living Australia, wanted to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Committee of Management of MOTL Australia and all its stakeholders, to once again thank and acknowledge Matan publicly for his enormous contribution to the organisation over the period of the 4 years he was in this role.

Matan worked tirelessly and seemingly effortlessly to continuously enhance and improve each and every deliverable in which he was involved. He did this with the utmost aplomb, humility, efficiency and professionalism, always accompanied by a remarkable level of generosity of service and heart. March of the Living Australia is a much stronger and more professionally-run organisation thanks to Matan, and I personally, as the person directly engaged with him most during this period, am truly indebted to him and wish to utilize this forum to wish him all the very best in all his future endeavours, at which I know for certain he will excel, as he did at March of the Living, Australia.

Lehitraot Chaver.

We asked our 2023 MOTL group their motivation for joining the program this year. Click here to read their varied and fascinating  responses.

Here is a selection of recent articles and videos from around the world, many of which we have shared across our social media over the past few weeks:

• VIDEO: Friederike Fechner receiving the Obermayer Award
• ARTICLE: Albania to build museum to citizens who saved Jews during Holocaust
• ARTICLE: As European nations celebrate their past, a US Holocaust envoy reminds them of its darker corners
• ARTICLE: WJC salutes Bulgarian authorities for banning Neo-Nazi Lukov March
• A Holocaust survivor fought antisemitism on TikTok and now he's a social media star
• When These Wives Stood Up, the Nazis Backed Down | Opinion

We greatly encourage all friends and supporters of March of the Living to play an active role in improving and influencing March of the Living Australia, its work, outreach, engagement and programs by becoming a paid MEMBER of the Association for 2023. In doing so, you will have a voice and influence across the organisation. 

The annual membership fee is $18.  If you would like to apply to become a member of March of the Living Australia Inc,  click on this link to download the application form.

Please fill in your details on the form and get two (2) current Members of March of the Living Australia Inc. to support your membership application.  If you do not know any other association Members, please email your completed Membership Form (without endorsement) to the Secretary - Shirley Atlas - at shirley@motl.com.au, and she will be in touch thereafter with regard to endorsement.  Please note that Membership is not automatic and that all applications for membership need to be approved by the Committee of Management.

We greatly look forward to hearing from you, and to hopefully having you join us as a Member of the Association in 2023!

As always, we warmly invite you to follow us on social media by clicking

on the various Socials bubbles below, so you may keep updated

with all our daily posts and news. 
We also kindly invite you to share this Newsletter

and encourage members of your networks

who may be interested in receiving it to subscribe

via the bottom of the Homepage on our website - www.motl.com.au

Once again, we would like to wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous new year.  We greatly look forward to being in touch again next month! 

Copyright © March of the Living Australia, All Rights Reserved.

You are receiving this email because you are part of the March of the Living Australia community.

Our mailing address is:

PO Box 268
Elsternwick
Melbourne 3185 

Want to change how you receive these emails?

Click here to unsubscribe

sent by vega.works