March of the Living 2014

The group of teens from Rhode Island who are participating in the March of the Living marched on April 28. Here is the New England blog entry from that date. It was written by Rhode Island’s Lexi Kutenplon-Rayess and Rachel Steinmetz, a participant from one of the other New England groups:

Today was Yom HaShoah, the day we all participated in “the March” from Auschwitz to Birkenau. Everyone started the day off with mixed emotions not knowing what to expect or feel, but once we got there the overwhelming amount of feeling of Jewish teens and survivors was comforting to us. We can all agree that seeing the “sea of blue jackets” marching between the two camps was a meaningful and powerful experience. Between the march and the ceremony, we all felt really proud to be there, walking in the path that our ancestors walked years before us.

The ceremony after the march was long, yet one of the most powerful Holocaust memorial services we have ever been to. There is something different about singing Eli Eli in America with tons of Jewish teens, versus singing it in Birkenau with survivors and other groups from around the world. We don’t think any of us will ever forget what we witnessed today. We really felt the significance of us coming back to remember the survivors and coming together as a Jewish community. As we stood surrounded by thousands of Jewish teens, adults, police officers, and diplomats — we realized how grateful we are to be Jewish.

To read more blog entries from the trip, go to http://molnewengland.com. To see more photos follow them on Facebook.