 Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to start off by saying thank you everyone for coming today You constant support friendship and dedication to the community and the city is appreciated I'd like to acknowledge Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Wiener Some of my colleagues here today Deputy Commissioner Michael Garner special counsel to the mayor Lisa Zonenberg Deputy Mayor Fabian Levy Commissioner Edward Mermelstein Deputy Chief of Staff Manasheh Shapiro. Also, I'd like to acknowledge Deputy Counsel General Sah Sahr and our amazing partner organizations here today You work to help our survivor population is duly appreciated I would like especially to thank the Museum of Jewish Heritage for opening its doors for us and for all the amazing work that you do daily I want to call upon the Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage Bruce Ratner So I want to thank you all for being here welcome to being to an incredible place I always say I'm involved in lots of things in the city There's nothing that's more important to me than this museum And I often think I look over there and I see LSI and I know my father got there And so that's an incredible thing to me. So let me talk about our mayor First of all, I've known you a long time a very long time When you're a borough president, you are a great borough president and I'm going to say this as many times again You are a great mayor a great mayor And I have worked for two administrations Lindsey administration for four years the Cotch administration for four years There is something that this mayor has done which not a single other mayor has ever done and that is say We are going to eliminate or reduce hate Against all groups not only Jewish but all groups whether it be Asian and so on and I've had other mayors They've been great and wonderful mayors But if you think about it It's a single most important thing that a mayor can do is bring everybody together and this mayor has done that and continues to do that and You know what you are our Danish rescue you are so you saw there you saw the exhibit Why do I say that your fight against? Antisemitism against hate with other groups whether it be Asians or Jews You've been an incredible friend to the Jewish people whether it was protection of neighborhoods Whether we're speaking out against Stabbings and terrible things that have happened to Jews and to others you are the one I've never seen a mayor so committed to eliminating and reducing hate ever and you have done an Extraordinary job at that and I want to tell you I could talk forever I've seen so many administrations I've been in the city when a time when we couldn't afford to have kindergartens And so I've seen the city with great crime problems Our crime is probably as low as it has been since my many years in the city, which is a lot of years And and this mayor has done a very very good job, and this is not a campaign speech This is a truth it is not really I'm saying couldn't say that more You know I'm fortunate to be married to someone who runs the Brooklyn Public Library system You have been wonderful to libraries among many others But we have an incredible mayor and for Jews you have been our savior really and I cannot thank you enough For everything you have done and that you continue to do and know that there's every person in this room Supports you I can guarantee you that really so with that I would like to introduce the wonderful mayor of the city of New York and bro president Bruce is so right our relationship goes so far back and he has been extremely supportive throughout the years of You know much of what Brooklyn is right now is because you saw the vision so many years ago And I want to thank you. This is such a powerful Exhibit to walk through Oftentimes we use the term of a translator is a person who Assist us in learning a language or communicating through a language that we don't know But translation is more than words. It is actual in visualization as well And what this exhibit is doing is allowing young people to come in you can easily talk about The Holocaust but to get that visual aspect To actually see and see young people that look like a child talk about their experience it's just so important and We need to make sure that with the partnership of the Department of Education New York City Public Schools That children walk through here and identify with what of this experience is about I've you know as you know I've been to Israel three times and many of you that's in the room. I know of I think the real problem we're having is that we did not continue to hand down and knowledge that Tradition and that's what we should dedicate ourselves to in 2024 In general in the city and in the country of the rich tradition of giving back by the Jewish community But it needs to be handed down in a real way to everyday people when you have a student of Howard University a protest against Israel and don't know that one of the co-founders is supportive with feeling philanthropic help was someone like a Jews and Julius Rosenwald who was there to educate and start Howard University Dillett College these African-American Institution, but they don't know as they talk about ending Any forms of aggression that if they're not aware of the Jewish relationship in educating thousands of young people during of the point in this country where They young people were not able to get education and they don't know that 50% of the whites that went to Mississippi during the most horrific period for blacks in this country Were Jewish students if they don't know that story Then they're going to be led by what's on tiktok social media Instagram That is going to be a different story when you have a visualization of this magnitude that children can walk through they can start Using the inquisitive nature to start asking questions and connecting the dots And so the relationships that we are developing is not only with Natalie and toby it is with John and Jose and Jimmy and just everyday people need to take back the narrative of who we are and this is the place to do it New York City We're so fortunate to be in this city. Yes, largest Jewish population outside of Israel is here in New York, but it's more than that. This is a place of diversity and I say to us Do not underestimate the intensity of the hate that is becoming pervasive and normalized across the globe Antisemitism is not in our rear view mirror. It is very much in our front Window there is a real Normalization of hatred and it is becoming so pervasive and people have become so comfortable with it We are seeing it in our Schools of academia our colleges. We're seeing it in classrooms We're seeing it as we walk the streets people are comfortable with protesting and having symbols of hate and spewing out hate we must push back on that and The three things that I walked away with that was really impressive for me is number one that everyday people were doing extra ordinary things They knew they could not pick up a rifle or beat the Nazis, so they did had a newspaper They organized they were part of the boat crews They did the small things that led to the larger victory a Second they did not remain silent How many in the city and country is watching what happened on October 7th and You're we're not hearing their voices Where is the outrage? That is the most troubling aspect as dr. King stated is not the Actions of those who are evil, but it's the silence of those who are not to paraphrase him And I think third that is more important than anything that I walked away with We look at the ugliness of the The war I think about walking through Auschwitz several years ago in crack out But there was something beautiful about ordinary people in Denmark That just stood up for their neighbors the Christians Those who put their lives on the line to hide people on the bottom of boats or in houses The stats that say, you know the large number of Jewish residents that were able to survive a Sweden opening up their country I so important to end on that high note So our children can know that there is a solution to the problem Don't be a detact spectator get involved. This exhibit is, you know, I've been to Yahfashem in In Israel, but this is probably one of the most important exhibits you could have place here This is an exhibit that Translate to our young people Our young people are going to change the course of the direction. We made a mistake We thought everything was fine. We didn't continue the education Dr. King had his Jewish colleagues and rabbis that marched with them I know my friend Bruce Radner of Josh and many of you that that's here, you know, are friends of mine, but our children don't They don't We have to do this So that they too can know how important our relationship is And it's not lost on me that October 7th 2023 Took place During the end of Sukau your holiday your acknowledgement the October 1st 1943 incident took place at the same time of a acknowledgement So the evil of there the DNA is still present here and Those terrible actions will still take place if we make sure they won't I'm committed Because I know we need each other Because if I'm not here for you today Someone is not going to be there for me tomorrow Evil is evil and there's no place for hate in this great city We call New York in this great country. We call America. Thank you so much for allowing me to participate Next speaker. I would like to call up on Toby leavey How can I say anything more than what the mayor had said? Hi, everybody I had a lot of things on my mind to say but Your speech overwhelmed me. Although I knew before had in hand. I I'm a child survivor. I was six years old. I survived just like you saw The Denmark people I was hidden by a woman and her 16 year old son 16 saved nine people. I say I'm a miracle child and I'm entitled to a lot of miracle things What goes with it? I then God have it The United States was wonderful for me. Let me live a great life I've enjoyed all the years my parents my family became he have raised a family everything went well till The shock of the second World the second shock came to me I came I was in Israel for the holidays came home two days just before the October 7th When it happened on a Saturday morning, I was besides myself. I felt I'm living through the same thing Couldn't get out of bed for weeks till one day I Put the TV on and I see the mayor Adams talking and saying the same thing I don't stand for anti-semitism. I will not allow it repeated all these things in all for sudden I got up I said it's not the same We have someone who hears us last time the whole world closed the doors from every country And they threw the keys away. There was no place to run. There was no place from anywhere But now I hear an American guy standing in New York City where I live telling me I understand you and I will not allow it the governor of the states and says the same then the president says Then I start then I came started coming out of my depression realizing There are not that everybody is an anti-semit. You're right But there are some who are not and that's you and many others and the some that are not have to overcome We have to work much harder I have been trying to do it for the past 14 years to talk to children and adults What did this to mean to hate? I don't hate anyone. I don't even hate the Germans or the Ukrainians Why are you crayon and a 16 year old boy saved my life? I had a life after my family. So how can I hate? I try to teach it in the schools Many a times a child would get up and ask me. What do you want from me? I'd say simply Make sure that you don't hate me if you do find out why Look around yourself. Talk to your parents. Talk to your kids. I try so hard I'm gonna try harder now instead of one class. I'll take two classes. I Think there was a chance You saved my life Thank you Thank you so much. I'd like to call up on Breanna Brennan. So This is a tall order following Come told me. I want to thank our mayor our esteemed mayor From the bottom of my heart You showed so much humanity And we needed badly I Am a survivor of the Holocaust. I was 80 years old when the war started by the time I was 11 My parents were murdered My three siblings my three sisters and Brother were murdered My mother came of 11 children Not one and or uncle survived their children were murdered I come from Poland Poland has three million Jews 90% Three can you wrap your head around this? million murdered a million and I have Innocent children You know, I met the group from Connecticut where the children was so brutally murdered That was Relatively a small number. How does it compare to? One and a half million innocent children being murdered So I want to empathize You know, I had a longer speech to make But unfortunately I'm overwhelmed. I Also want to say again repeat how grateful Unbelievably grateful We are I am to our esteemed mayor So much humanity Humanity, I'm not you so also want to thank and I'm very grateful to this museum For allowing me to voice my concerns to allow me to spoke to educate about the Holocaust now By the way, Poland had six killing centers The largest of them was Auschwitz More than a million again, can you fathom this? More than a million were murdered just in Auschwitz and The world was silent and All the doors were close to us. So when we have a humanitarian like our esteemed Mayor I just am really melting with gratitude. So Anti-Semitism is recurring Very freely people are free to voice their opinions very freely. I Feel I'm back in Europe in Germany words can kill It started with words So we have a mission a Great mission We have to marshal all our resources To vanquish anti-Semitism Before it's too late and maybe it is too late So I want to urge you one and all Don't think it doesn't apply to you It does apply to you and after the Jews are murdered Others will suffer as well What will it show? What will it tell us about? humanity is this humanity I want to conclude We must marshal our resources and find fight this scorch It should never ever Happen again. Thank you. Thank you. Next. I would like to call upon Natalie a survivor from the October 7 massacre Hello, everyone My name is Natalie Sanandaji, and I am a survivor of the October 7th. Nova Music Festival Massacre on That horrific day. I along with thousands of other innocent people Ran for our lives for hours While being shot up by the Hamas terrorists I Survived but unfortunately many others were not as fortunate Some were raped and murdered on the spot while others were taken hostage and are still being raped and tortured today Surviving the October 7th massacre means that I survived an attempt to genocide of the Jewish people in the span of a day Surviving the Holocaust Means to have survived a genocide that spanned four years But who knows how long the October 7th attacks would have lasted if the Jewish people didn't have their own state and an army to protect them The Holocaust showed us why the Jewish people need their own state and their own land to call home and The attacks on October 7th showed us how different things might have been if the Jewish people had their own state at the time of the whole when the Holocaust started The Jewish people now have the right to defend themselves and the ability to do so and they will continue to defend themselves And I would like to thank all of our allies That have shown us their support and stood by our side during these difficult times including Mayor Adams Thank you for all that you have done and for standing by the Jewish people We will never forget how much support that you have shown us and will forever be grateful Thank you. Next I would like to call up Maurice a local New Yorker whose family is currently being held in hostage I'm a member of Four generations of persecution for My mother wasn't a Holocaust my generation My sister was murdered by Hamas and her husband Yossi too her daughter Shiri Her husband you are then Ariel the four-year-old and now the one-year-old fear as hostages those four generations of persecution why for the simple reason that we Jewish and This emittism has to stop one of the first things I Said one I Was sharing Shiva and I told family members. I said my mother I felt I was broken. I said what do I do? How can I put up with this? What's going on and I told my I told my wife My mother survived the Holocaust that she was strong woman. She created a family She met a family. She made us she got a grandkid And great-grandkids and she survived. She was so strong. So I had to be like her like you We created the state of Israel because I saw your number You don't see too many of us and I see the strength of you we created The state of Israel because what you went through the Holocaust because what you did now we have my army's right We have our own country. We have to fight for So what is the problem? They didn't want us in so many places not in Germany. Okay, so you have Israel. So now you can live in Israel. Fine We have Israel leave us alone Israel did not invade Hama at Gaza Hamas did I See antisemitism left and right when I was a little kid that facing this emittism I my mother told me as one thing when I get people will call me a Jew. Oh, yeah, who deal I'm from some other South American proverb. I'm a mother says so what? Tell them you're you're proud of it and They will come a little deal and I said I'm proud of it. I'm my eight year old kid I remember that very well and they will look at me. Oh, yeah, who deal? Yes. I'm proud of it and They will they left me alone. I Have so many antisemitism or races in this country Especially now I came in it to the US in 1981. I never seen this these countries so divided as now never When people came to me what her business say I go back to the country you came from so what I did I go behind the counter It's I'm Jewish to you have a problem without you That's what I told them What's happening? How much it does are right now with the I'm so glad to have to to see you a lot It never met, you know, I have not been in Israel so everything so to see you You know, it's not because you have my family so every single one We are one for all and all for one in this fight and when people will come into my house for Shiva So many seven seven hundred and fifty or maybe eight hundred people get to my house for Shiva I was expecting the Armenian of ten or fifteen people I'm close to 800 people came and I said you're not coming for me you coming for all I'm Israel You come in here to mourn every single person that was killed in Israel all the 1200 Because we're all got together. We'll fight for each other. We all want to be one And the way I see it. It's like who else would have done what we did This is it's hard to say Like I have said every time I speak and I spoke in many many times even abroad Whatever I say this on the moment is for what comes from my heart. I Want to see every single hostage back They you money to have in a four-year-old or nine model taken hostage Where where where is everybody what is the whole world screaming and putting the pressure on Hamas and all the other country That this dad is wrong That is wrong. I'm sick. I'm tired of saying that I need to get interviews and and but you know They on TV and it for what what is happening? Yet the US is doing great and Egypt is trying and Qatar meh, maybe What are the rest of the world? What are the politicians that spoke with presidents in? Argentina and Uruguay and And then Brazil spoke with them with it to On politicians and senators and everything, but what do we see it's nothing That I'm not mind though now nine month old baby instead of learning to walk and play Where the way is supposed to be and celebrate his first birthday with a cake So why don't we celebrate his first birthday in Central Park? We leave the candle over there when he's running he can't have to film or other places in the world Just to imagine that a four-year-old I don't one year old have not seen the light of the light of the day for four months It is incredible if you if somebody in the streets kidnapped so they call it that would not kidnap They were taken hostage of war a four-year-old and a one-year-old and he you You you catch up a criminal like that. I took a baby like that. You go to jail for it Everybody makes a big deal and what's happening now? How much is happening? We are Not enough is doing not the world is not doing enough this city is this country is and Without your support without everybody that listens I I say I could not make it I could not make board out your support. You give us a strength You give me the strength and you give us the strength to keep fighting Like to the last bullet Thank you Thank you for the last speaker. I would like to call up on Gideon Taylor the president of the claims conference Mr. Mayor You have been a leader and a friend for the Jewish community For Israel and for Holocaust survivors and for that we are deeply deeply grateful for your friendship your partnership This museum is a place of education of knowledge of learning of teaching In a time of a time of hate. It's a beacon of light in this city and around the country The claims conference recently released a survey a demographic survey worldwide of Holocaust survivors There are today in New York City 13,400 Holocaust survivors still with us 13,400 individuals That many of you in this room do much to care for to help to make sure that their lessons are taught that their stories are Heard and that we can take the messages that they give us for generations still to come But we will reach a time when there will not be Holocaust survivors There to speak in their own voice and to tell their own stories and we have to find new ways new technologies to teach and to educate and to take the stories that we hear today and that we hear for those in schools and in in videos and in Films to make sure that those will get transmitted to future generations in this world of dark and this world of hate and We must continue our mission to look after Holocaust survivors the claims conference Is Allocating significant dollars in New York City to help with home care and assistance But it's not enough and will never be enough because we can never make whole what happened to Holocaust survivors Every Holocaust survivor represents hope over despair Survival over destruction Intertwined is often the deepest of pain and the strongest of resilience I was in Ashkelon and I sat with a 96 year old Holocaust survivor And there were rockets falling but he wanted to tell me his story of his time during the Holocaust He talked about being in the forest About wanting to give up about when it all seemed to be in an end and then he said The daily war of existence seemed to me without hope without purpose But then once again, I would decide where to spend the night And then he showed me what he wrote about his family on October 7 2023 from between the evil barbed wires Emerged the horrifying scenes of fire dust murder and the terrible massacre of innocent lives Reaching me once again. My dearest grandson. Yeah, have may his memory be blessed was murdered while protecting his wife Shaili and their one month old daughter Shia and my dearest granddaughter had our may her memory be blessed and her husband Eta may his memory be blessed were slaughtered while defending their ten month old twins rowie and guy. I Met Shaili the wife of that one of those grandchildren who was killed Grandchildren of that Holocaust survivor. He was a filmmaker and she was a filmmaker too and she said You haven't I always wish that every film even in the dark places will have some compassion something to hold on to So when I make a film, I will probably put a little light In that film the story of this family is a story of pain and devastation But also a story of strength and creativity a story of love and resilience Perhaps in some ways, it's a story of Holocaust survivors The story of Israel and the story of the Jewish people to the Holocaust survivors in this room The Holocaust survivors in New York and around the world You Inspire us to be better You demand of us to be stronger and You make sure that we will continue to fight for a better world for generations to come Thank you all for joining the program is now concluded