March 13, 2015
On March 26 and 27, Holocaust survivor Judy Abrams, will give three presentations at Collège Notre-Dame (100 Lévis St., Sudbury) while in Greater Sudbury. Her first presentation which is open to the public will take place on Thursday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. The following day at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Mrs. Abrams will offer presentations to students from Collège-Notre-Dame (Sudbury), École secondaire du Sacré-Cœur (Sudbury), École secondaire catholique l’Horizon (Val Caron) and École secondaire catholique Champlain (Chelmsford). Members of the media are cordially invited to attend.
Mrs. Abrams’ visit to Sudbury and her presentation are made possible by the Azrieli Foundation, which publishes memoirs of survivors of the Nazi genocide of European Jews and who later immigrated to Canada. Through the support of the Foundation, CSCNO secondary school students will have a unique opportunity to meet with a witness to History. While screening a short documentary about the horror that was the Holocaust for the students, Mrs. Abrams will recount anecdotes of the wartime period and share his own experiences.
Judy Abrams co-wrote with Eva Felsenburg Marx the book entitled Tenuous Threads / One of the Lucky Ones. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1937, Judy Abrams survived the Holocaust passing as a Christian child. She immigrated to Montreal in 1949 and later taught French at the United Nations International School in New York. She and her husband divide their time between Montreal and New York.
In their book, the authors describe the lives of two Jewish girls born six months apart – Judit in Hungary and Eva in Czechoslovakia. They are only children when they are thrown into the turmoil and terror of World War II. At seven, Judy’s mother leaves her at a convent where she must adopt a new “Christian” identity. Eva is first sent away at two, then again at six, in disguise and tearful. Separated from their parents, they are forced to “pass” as Christian children. Coping with dangers they barely understand, these evocative and lyrical memoirs describe childhoods irrevocably marked by the Holocaust. Tenuous Threads and One of the Lucky Ones tell us the parallel but unique stories of two children who were able to survive when so many others perished.
The Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario offers a French Catholic Educational Program that is widely recognized for its excellence. The CSCNO provides a quality learning environment and academic program that runs from early childhood to adult education, with some 7,000 students in 27 elementary and 10 secondary schools.
INFO:
Paul de la Riva
Communications and Community Development Coordinator
Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario
(705) 673-5626, ext. 294
(705) 677-8195 – cell phone
paul.delariva@nouvelon.ca
