Smart Talk: Holocaust remembrance; Municipal pension series
What to look for on Smart Talk Thursday, April 16, 2015:
As a young Jewish woman in 1940s Czechoslovakia, Hanna Kohner survived four separate concentration camps before she was liberated from the Nazis by American soldiers.
Her childhood sweetheart Walter, who had emigrated to the United States, discovered that Hanna was still alive and they were soon married, settling in Los Angeles. Hanna Kohner’s story of survival was the first to be widely known in the United States in 1953 when she appeared on the television show This Is Your Life.
See the This is Your Life show here.
When Hanna passed away in 1990, her daughter Julie Kohner founded the nonprofit Voices of the Generations, dedicated to bearing witness to the events of the Holocaust through the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families.
Julie provides free educational programs on the Holocaust to public schools, community centers and places of worship and will be sharing her parents’ story at the Lehigh Valley Jewish Federation in Allentown, PA on April 15 and 16.
From sundown April 15 to sundown April 16 this year, Yom HaShoah is the annual international commemoration of the events of the Holocaust. Julie Kohner will join us on Smart Talk Thursday to discuss the importance of Yom HaShoah and her educational work with Voices of the Generations.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg, which serves the Jewish community in the Capitol region and provides educational programing about the Holocaust, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Lillian Rappaport, Jewish Education Director at the Federation and daughter of a Holocaust survivor, joins us on the program.
Also, WITF News has been running a Keystone Crossroads series this week called Pennsylvania Pensions: Is the Promise Broken? Keystone Crossroads Emily Previti and Irina Zhorov give us a sneak preview.
