Thank you so much for the wonderful article “Hanukkah Menorah Honors Holocaust Hero” in the Nov. 29 issue. You really did justice to the project. As of today, I sold 107 menorahs and raised $9,700 for the Holocaust Resource Center at Temple Judea in Manhasset.
More importantly and profoundly, I am being contacted by people from all over. I’ve heard from two people whose fathers were Janusz Korczak orphans, a woman who is a Janusz Korczak expert, people from the Janusz Korczak Association, and I’ve received lots and lots of emails from people who never heard of Janusz Korczak before, but are touched by the story. A few people have used the brochure I wrote to teach their Hebrew school students a lesson on Janusz Korczak.
One woman, Mariola Strahlberg, from the Janusz Korczak Association, told me that when she goes to the Janusz Korczak conference in Seattle in August, she was hoping that 206 people in this country will have heard his name, and thanks to this project, she has met her goal.
I asked her, “Where did you come up with the number 206?” She said that there were 196 children in the orphanage with 10 teachers and aides, who were all killed in Treblinka. That was very moving.
Thanks so much for writing about it.
—Risa Borsykowsky,
Jewish Gift Place
