Chanukah Cards of Care for Holocaust Survivors

Chanukah Cards of Care

I was contacted by Cards of Care before Chanukah and asked if our pupils would like to write a Chanukah card to a Holocaust survivor. Our Year 6 pupils each wrote a Chanukah card. They were given a name of a person and wrote their own messages specifically to them. I received an email from Nicci Menashe at Cards of Care thanking the children and describing how some of the recipients reacted upon receiving their cards.

I was incredibly humbled and wanted to share this with our school community.

The email is below.

Dear Samantha

We hope you are well and that you had a good Chanukah.

We just wanted to thank you and your Clore Tikva students for all the time, love and care that was poured into your Chanukah cards in December.

Manfred Goldberg, a Holocaust survivor (photo attached) appeared on ITV News in December with all the Chanukah Cards of Care that he had received displayed behind him! I was fortunate enough to speak to him (at a Holocaust Educational Trust reception to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in the Houses of Parliament) last week and I personally got his feedback. He said it touched his heart to receive such love from all the students. I promised Manfred that together, we would continue to ensure that we flood the world with love to combat all the hate. The more people hate, the more we will love. He told me he was ‘moved to tears’ by my promise and he got very emotional. He took my hand and with tears in his eyes, he kissed it. It was a moment I will never forget. He asked me to thank you all from the bottom of his heart as we cannot fulfil this promise without the help of you and your students.

Janine Webber (whose traumatic life was featured in the recent Edek film- highly worth watching if you have not seen it yet) was also there and she personally asked me to convey her gratitude to the creators of her cards. She said it was one of the best Chanukah gifts she had received, and she wanted you all to know how much she appreciated all the personalised cards and how she would treasure them forever!

Anita Lasker- Wallfisch, born in Poland in 1925 and who played in The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, told me that this was the first Chanukah that she felt like smiling.

Joanna Millan BEM  (Born Bela Rosenthal in August 1942) was found wandering around Theresienstadt at age 3 until it was liberated, wanted us to ‘thank you all so much’… The cards were ‘ Very much appreciated.’

Eve Kugler, who is 92 and was born in Germany and witnessed Kristallnacht first hand spoke to me this week and told me what made the cards so special to her, was how personal they were.

I have also heard that Arek Hersh was so moved by receiving all the cards and his wife wants to reply to each student in person to thank them!

I am sure there is much more feedback to come, but for now, we wanted to thank you for helping in your own special way to get these cards to the survivors.

We would be grateful if you could tell your students how much their time and love meant to these brave and beautiful educators, who have enlightened us all for so many years.

If you know any other teachers at your school or at any other schools who would want their students to get more involved with Cards of Care this year, please send them this message from us:

The more hands we have, the further we can reach and the more people will feel our love.

Thank you to Clore Tikva Year 6!  We love you! 

Nicci Menashe | Cards Of Care