INTRODUCTION OF 2013 SHOFAR ZACHOR AWARD WINNER RUTH CALLAHAN, PHD
BY ELAINE HIRSH, BUREA OF JEWISH EDUCTION
BY ELAINE HIRSH, BUREA OF JEWISH EDUCTION
It is my distinct honor to present this year’s Shofar Zachor Award to Ruth Callahan. The Shofar has become a powerful symbol of Jewish spirituality. The sound of the shofar during Elul and Rosh HaShana is meant to wake something in us, to stir us to think about our actions and change our behaviors for the year to come. The Shofar blasts are a summons to action. Zachor, the Hebrew word for remember, is a word which has been carried across the generations. Just six weeks ago, on the Shabbat before Purim, we observed Shabbat Zachor, when we recall the story of Amalek and we remember he set out to kill the Israelites after their Exodus from Egypt. It is a reminder that in every generation there is an Amalek who seeks to destroy us, and serves as a reminder that evil and anti-Semitism still exits in our world. Ruth has dedicated a good portion of her teaching career to Zachor - to remembering the Holocaust. Like the summons of the Shofar to action, studying the Holocaust has been her calling for as long as she can remember.
Her interest in the Holocaust began as a young girl, after reading Exodus by Leon Uris. As a young woman she visited Dachau, ironically on the same day that Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics.
Encouraged by the late rabbi Albert Plotkin, of blessed memory, Ruth wrote her PhD dissertation on Franz Kafka and Jewish mysticism.
For the past 20 years she has been an instructor at Glendale Community College. She has been a participant in workshops at Yad Vashem and an international conference at Auschwitz. In recent years, Ruth has escorted students to Eastern Europe where they were immersed in the history of the Holocaust and the lessons for today. She has also been a presenter at the BJE’s annual Educators’ Conference on the Holocaust.
This Yom HaShoah we remember the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 70 years ago Pavel Frankel, one of the young leaders of the Uprising, addressed his fighters, “Comrades, we will die before our time, but we are not doomed. We will live as long as Jewish history continues to live.”
Ruth, you have enabled students to confront the past through active learning and an increased awareness of the great European Jewish civilization that was lost forever. You deem it important to connect Jewish life and history with the present. In doing so, your students will be able to build a better future.
Her interest in the Holocaust began as a young girl, after reading Exodus by Leon Uris. As a young woman she visited Dachau, ironically on the same day that Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics.
Encouraged by the late rabbi Albert Plotkin, of blessed memory, Ruth wrote her PhD dissertation on Franz Kafka and Jewish mysticism.
For the past 20 years she has been an instructor at Glendale Community College. She has been a participant in workshops at Yad Vashem and an international conference at Auschwitz. In recent years, Ruth has escorted students to Eastern Europe where they were immersed in the history of the Holocaust and the lessons for today. She has also been a presenter at the BJE’s annual Educators’ Conference on the Holocaust.
This Yom HaShoah we remember the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. 70 years ago Pavel Frankel, one of the young leaders of the Uprising, addressed his fighters, “Comrades, we will die before our time, but we are not doomed. We will live as long as Jewish history continues to live.”
Ruth, you have enabled students to confront the past through active learning and an increased awareness of the great European Jewish civilization that was lost forever. You deem it important to connect Jewish life and history with the present. In doing so, your students will be able to build a better future.