Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
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"Luboml: My Heart Remembers" -- A Documentary Film by Ron Steinman and Eileen Douglas
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
On June 13, 2002, the world premiere of the documentary film, Luboml: My Heart Remembers, cosponsored by CLAL, the Jewish Community Center
(JCC) in Manhattan, and the Aaron Ziegelman Foundation, was held at the JCC. The film, produced by Ron Steinman, former NBC
News Bureau Chief (Saigon, Hong Kong and London), and Eileen Douglas, former 1010 WINS
news radio anchor, brings to life the vibrant Jewish shtetl
in Poland that was destroyed by the Holocaust in 1942.
Through the use of more than 2,000 photographs gathered by the Aaron
Ziegelman Foundation, the film depicts the warmth and intimacy of the everyday life of
Luboml’s streets, markets, stores, workshops, schools, homes and families.
“Luboml was
just one town, one of thousands of shtetlach, in which the sense of communal responsibility
was palpable,” said CLAL faculty member Rabbi Daniel Brenner, who led the discussion
following the screening. “ But this film proves that by getting to know one community
intimately, we understand both the enormity of the loss and the reason why so many people
still treasure their days in the shtetl.”
The Jewish
community of Luboml, one of the oldest in Poland, dating back to the fourteenth century,
enjoyed a measure of autonomy in the mid-1920s. Modern
improvements reached the town, with paved roads, sidewalks and electricity. Central to Jewish life was the Great Synagogue,
built in the seventeenth century.
But in the early
decades of the twentieth century, many of Luboml’s families joined the mass migration
to the United States and to other countries to seek greater opportunity. Aaron
Ziegelman’s family was one of them. Of
the thousands of Jews that stayed in Luboml, only 51 survived the Holocaust.
Through Mr.
Ziegelman’s dedication, persistence and vision, he collected the pictures, documents,
photographs, and other artifacts of Luboml and its inhabitants to keep the memory of the
town alive. His research included contacting
dozens of families scattered throughout the world, and formed the basis for an exhibit as
well as the current documentary.
In
addition to the presence of Mr. Ziegelman, who is a CLAL board member, a high point of the
evening was the introduction of three former residents of Luboml. In a moving tribute to the town, they talked about
the perfect vision of life and community caring that governed their world.
“Luboml:
My Heart Remembers is
such a beautiful, joyous and bittersweet film,” said Rabbi Brenner. “Watching this documentary together with
people who spent their childhood in Luboml is a testament to memory and humanity’s
ability to reclaim lost worlds through story.”
In
September, the film is scheduled to appear on PBS-TV.
The photographs will be sent to the Library of Congress.
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