Several thousand Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their families from across the country will gather at the Statue of Liberty on Sunday, September 7 “to thank America for providing them with a home and haven,” it was announced here.
At a news conference, Benjamin Meed, president of the American Gathering and Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, said the liberty Island ceremonies, to be followed by a reunion and dinner that evening at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, would celebrate “40 years of a new life.” The American Gathering and Federation represents 55,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors in the U.S. and is co-sponsoring the September 7 program with HIAS.
Robert Israeloff, president of HIAS, told the news conference of his organization’s pride at being instrumental 40 years ago “in helping those who survived the long nightmare of the Holocuast to restart their lives in freedom and dignity.”
The flags of II American Army units that liberated the Nazi death camps will be displayed during the Statue of Liberty program, beginning at 11:30 a.m., which will include performances of patriotic American compositions and Yiddish music by the 100-member U.S. Army Band and Choir, Meed said. A high-ranking Administration official is expected to address the gathering, he said.
The “Liberty Reunion” September 7 will be the first to be held in New York, according to Meed. The first international gathering took place in Jerusalem in 1981, followed by a 1983 reunion in Washington.
Israeloff said the September 7 events would “pay homage to the extraordinary dynamism of the four decades during which the survivors have given so much to this country.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
