The Ghetto Fighters’ House, Israel
Making a Lasting Monument of Our Family Tree
Dear Lubetkin Family Member:
For more than 40 years, Lubetkin descendants -- and families allied with the Lubetkins through marriage -- have been researching their families’ genealogies back to their Eastern European roots in the Baltic regions of Lithuania and Poland.
After her brother’s Bar Mitzvah, Sue Lubetkin of New York City picked up where her mother’s research effort had left off, collecting names and dates of relatives and creating a hand-drawn diagram of the family’s branches. In the mid-1980s, I joined the research, compiling the information into a vast genealogical database on computer, and (in 1996) creating this web site.
More recently, the research has turned to an effort to document definitively the family origins of Ziviah Lubetkin Zuckerman, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and a founder of Kibbutz Lohamei Haghetaot, the Ghetto Fighters’ Kibbutz in northern Israel.
Now, we have the opportunity to marry our family roots research with a living educational monument to one of the brightest stars in our history.
The Ghetto Fighters’ House
The Ghetto Fighters’ House was established in 1949 on the grounds
of Kibbutz Lohamei Haghetaot, the Ghetto Fighters’ Kibbutz in northern
Israel. The Kibbutz and Museum were founded by survivors of the ghetto
uprisings and the Jewish resistance movement. Zivia and Yitzhak Zuckerman
were key figures in establishing the Museum and its educational program.
The Israeli institution is supported in the U.S. through the tax-exempt,
nonprofit American Friends of the Ghetto Fighters’ House(tax
exemption number 22-2316041), 765 Queen Anne Road, POB 2153, Teaneck, NJ
07666.
The Ghetto Fighters’ House first took shape as an archive of documents
and materials about the Jewish resistance and the ghetto uprisings. The
archive evolved into one of the world’s largest museums and educational
and documentation centers on the Holocaust and Jewish resistance. Today,
the Museum includes extensive historical exhibits, an acclaimed art museum,
a renowned documentary and film archive, and a teachers’ seminar center.
It is also the only Holocaust Museum in the world to have established a
specific museum about and for children – Yad Layeled.
State Mandates for Holocaust Education Drive Demand for Programs
Today, 15 U.S. states mandate some level of Holocaust studies in their public school programs at the middle and secondary school levels. Beyond the typical historical documents and publications about Nazi atrocities, there is a scarcity of useful, age-appropriate material for teachers anxious to develop lesson plans to meet the state mandates while adding human and literary dimensions to the Holocaust as experienced by its victims.
In November 1996, members of Lubetkin and Lubetkin-related families met in New Jersey and New York to discuss undertaking a fundraising effort -- on behalf of the entire Lubetkin family -- to support U.S. production and distribution of one of an array of educational projects developed by the Ghetto Fighter’s House in Israel.
Conclusion: An Opportunity to Remember Our Family
Supporting the Ghetto Fighters’ House, and its connection to the Lubetkin family, offers us a wonderful opportunity to honor a shining light in our family pantheon. We seldom get the chance to honor the memory of a family member in a way that will reach into our future generations as effectively as these programs. We hope you will help us identify ways we can make one of these projects a reality on behalf of our entire family and its future generations.
How can you participate? Most obviously, as you plan your charitable giving for the coming year, why not include a contribution to the Lubetkin Family Project at the American Friends of The Ghetto Fighters' House, 765 Queen Anne Road, POB 2153, Teaneck, NJ 07666? You’ll be helping to build a living Lubetkin family legacy through education of our young people.
You can also help by passing this letter along to other family members who might be interested in our work. Finally, we will be working to formalize our family project committee in the first quarter of 1997, so we welcome your suggestions for programs we might undertake to generate additional interest and support for the Ghetto Fighters House educational materials. If you are able to volunteer your time to serve on a correspondence, public relations, or educators subcommittee, please contact me or Sue Lubetkin at (212) 628-9354.
With all warm family wishes,
Steven L. Lubetkin
Chairman, Lubetkin Family Project
(856) 751-5491 Days
(856) 751-6146 Evenings
EMAIL: steve@lubetkin.net