In April of 1942, the Nazi invaders deported the last 2100 Jews from the Gombin ghetto to The Chelmno Death Camp where they were murdered. On April 22, the Staszica School Complex will hold an educational program for its students related to this tragic Jewish history. A small group of Jewish Gombiners will travel to Poland and participate. On Sunday afternoon, April 24, a commemorative community march will take place from the Historic Marker in the Old Market Square, through the streets of the former Jewish ghetto to the Firemen’s Field — the site where Jews awaited their deportations. We will remember the 2,100. While we recognize that this is a difficult time to plan international travel, Jewish Gombiners are invited to attend. If you can’t attend, you can donate to support this Yahrzeit.
On Sunday, April 24th (time to be determined) Virtual Gombin #11, will be hosted from Gąbin by members of the Gombin Society who are traveling to Poland to participate in several days of activities related to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish community in 1942.
Anita Greenbaum Brush, Vicki Fingeroot, Marlene Rifkin, and Michael Shade will host a Zoom call, along with Wojtek and Karen Wasilewski and our partner organizations, reviewing the activities at the Staszic School and the Community March where they will read the names of some of the 2300 Jews from the ghetto who were deported and murdered at Chełmno . Video footage of the weekend’s events will be shown.
More information to come, including invite registration.
The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Gombin Society will be held at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC on November 4 and 5, 2022.
More information will be forthcoming, including the agenda, report on the Museum’s Gombin collection, business meeting, election of officers, registration and hotel arrangements, etc.
In Virtual Gombin Tour #6, Lindsey Max talks about “History Lost and Found: Tracing My Gombiner Roots Through the Jewish Diaspora”, an article she wrote for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. In personal and authentic language, Lindsey describes the genealogical journey that took her to discover her Gombiner roots. That journey took her around the world, to the Gombin shtetl in Poland and back to New Jersey, where she delved into the history of the Gombin Society.
This extraordinary “hybrid” event will be held June 9th at 4pm in Poland (3pm in UK, 10am EDT, 7am Pacific, 5pm in Israel). A live event will take place in Gąbin with the Mayor and Polish guests. Comments from other Polish and International friends will be on-line.
Join fellow Gombiners to remotely, but enthusiastically, celebrate the Passover. Vicky Fingeroot and others will lead a brief version of the seder with candle lighting, blessings over the ritual seder plate, matzoh, wine. Will include excerpts from the Haggadah, poetry, remembrance of Passover in Gombin, and a chance for Gombiners to chat and interact, remotely, of course.
Professor Karina Von Tippelskirch of Syracuse University read from the work of renown Gombiner Yiddish poet, Rajzel Zychlinski, and discussed the importance of her work. Scott Harris lead the event.
Please join Gombiners from all over the world for a Virtual Shabbat on Friday, January 15, 2021 at 5pm (Eastern time). Vicky Fingeroot will lead a Shabbat candle lighting with blessings and opportunities to share and chat (on zoom, of course). Please forward this message to your family!
Anita Greenbaum-Brush Presents: “Hope, Change and Loss; Gombin and Poland during the 20s and 30s”
Anita will use historic photographs, documents and memoires to introduce us to the life of the Jewish community in Gombin during a vibrant period of cultural, religious, and economic life. This period was known as Poland’s 2nd Republic between the end of World War I and the Nazi invasion. Many of our families’ memories and stories come from this period.
About 50 Gombiners and friends from the U.S., U.K., Poland, Europe, and Israel participated in a ½ hour virtual tour of the iconic Gombin Synagogue; Bernie Guyer led the tour. That Synagogue was at the center of the town’s Jewish life for more than 200 years. Photographs, the scale model of the synagogue, and an excerpt of the virtual video tour of the Synagogue’s interior are shown; Anita Greenbaum Brush reads from her father’s memoire of Yom Kippur in Gombin. The tour concludes with renderings of the proposed memorial plaque installation that is currently pending approval.
Please join Gombiners from all over the world for a Virtual Shabbat on Friday, October 2, 2020 (Sukkot) at 5pm (Eastern time). Have your kiddush cup, candle sticks and challah ready, whether in your sukkah or kitchen. A lay-member of the Board will lead you in informal Shabbat blessings and song. Please forward this message to your family!
Guest Speaker: Karina von Tippelskirch, Associate Professor of German and German Program Coordinator Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Syracuse University, authority on the works of Rajzel Zychlinsky and European authors who fled persecution in the past century.