The Unsung, Unfinished Legacy of Isaac Giterman

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Three months before the uprising began, Giterman was gunned down in the stairway of a Warsaw apartment building. Although he knew he would be killed eventually, Giterman refused to leave his post.

The Fellowship is proud of our longtime partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Together, we help impoverished families, vulnerable orphans, and Holocaust survivors in need in the former Soviet Union (FSU).

Learn the story of one of the early leaders of the JDC, who was an inspirational relief worker during WWII, as told by David M. Schizer, CEO of the JDC:

When Jews were confined to the ghetto in November 1940, Giterman supported the work of his protégé, Emmanual Ringelblum, to memorialize conditions in the ghetto. Their secret archive, with the code name Oyneg Shabbes, included hundreds of testimonials. These secret records, buried in aluminum crates and recovered after the war, provided first-hand accounts of Nazi brutality and Jewish resistance...

Three months before the uprising began, Giterman was gunned down in the stairway of a Warsaw apartment building. Although he knew he would be killed eventually, Giterman refused to leave his post. In the words of Ringelblum, “a true public servant like Giterman could not cut himself from his activities.” No matter the cost to himself, Giterman would not abandon his people.

“The death of Isaac Giterman shocked everyone,” Ringelblum recalled only a few months before the Nazis murdered him as well. “He was the personification of community activists who faithfully served the needs of the Jewish people. To the suffering Jews of Poland, Isaac Giterman was a hero and their only hope, and he died serving them. We will always remember him in awe and esteem.”

It's not too late to help Holocaust survivors in need. This Thursday, April 12, we will observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and The Fellowship is committed to aiding survivors in need all around the world - learn how you can join our effort today.

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Three months before the uprising began, Giterman was gunned down in the stairway of a Warsaw apartment building. Although he knew he would be killed eventually, Giterman refused to leave his post.

 

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