Dear Friends: I am writing to you due to the recent steps taken by New York State which eliminates the funding for the School News Nationwide, Words of Bonds program. This comes at an extremely critical time. I am writing to our Board of Directors, staff, volunteers and friends asking them to help us through this crisis. As many of you know, crime recently climbed in New York, and Hate Crimes are increasing at an alarming rate each year. The numbers go up each year and their virulence increases. Now is not the time to prevent such a dynamic program as ours which not only helps our young people value diversity, but also the positive aspects of respect and understanding differences. Other key components of our program include television broadcasting, newspaper writing, conflict resolution, mentoring, homework help, learning interviewing/ communication, and critical reading skills. I am imploring everyone to help in this difficulty by sending in a tax-deductible contribution of $100.00 or more to School News Nationwide. Please visit www.firstgiving.com/schoolnewsnationwide and donate, or make check payable to School News Nationwide, and send it to 1068 Fulton Street Brooklyn New York 11238. As our children discuss, write and learn to appreciate this remarkable historical human endeavor, they understand the importance of community, respect, and the importance of others as well. As you know, Holocaust Survivors are telling authentic stories, in real time, all with a passionate and impactful plea – that we can make a difference. It is both your awareness, and their story of tolerance and the power of love. We must keep telling it.
As you know, the primary focus of our learning experiences is tolerance, spear-headed by the painful recounting of Holocaust Survivors. These survivors visit our schools to share their experiences and their wisdom. If our program ceases to be, many of these weary warriors will be too elderly, or infirm to tell their story, or, worse, may no longer be around as living witnesses to past atrocities. Unfortunately, each day a Holocaust survivor dies, leaving us with one less educator of tolerance.We have taken the firm stance that, diversity and tolerance are not only timely, but timeless. In the words of one of the participating young people, “We learned not only what happened to someone else, but what can happen to us, if people do not care”. The immediacy of this message is for us…. Please care!
I personally thank you for taking the time to seriously ponder this challenge.. I look forward to signing our letter of deep appreciation to each of you, for your generous support. To you, and to all of our other friends throughout the world, please accept our most sincere thanks in advance, for your generous response.
Sally Frishberg, Holocaust Survivor
Board Member
Bill Tingling
Executive Director
School News Nationwide, Inc.
“Words of Bonds” project
Sally Frishberg, Holocaust Survivor & Educator
Sally is one of the “Words of Bonds” leading spoke person. Together with the with School News Nationwide, ”Words of Bonds” members have visited many schools, spoken to thousands of children that we must do whatever we can to stop hate crimes and instead embrace love and tolerance. For all her perky warmth and enthusiasm, Sally Frishberg was once unusually quiet. As a child in Poland during World War II, she and her family hid from the Nazis in the attic of a Catholic man’s barn. Fifteen people crowded into the small space, surviving on what little food the man brought. They never spoke lest someone find them; her father mouthed stories from the newspaper and the family read his lips.
Sally said that she refused to reveal the name of the man who hid them, keeping a promise she had made to him, until his widow granted her permission to do so in 1987. His name was Stanislaw Grocholski and may God bless his soul, Sally said, Three years after the Soviets liberated them in 1944, the family traveled by boat to the United States. Sally recalled, when she was on the boat traveling to America, a European Woman chided a 13- year old Ms. Frishberg for jumping into a bunk she wanted for herself.
“You dirty little Jew,” Ms. Frishberg remembers her saying. “If I had my way, you would have been dead.” Seeing the anguish on the young girl’s face, an African American matron lady of the ship,” as Ms. Frishberg called her, rocked her in her arms and comforter her.
“I suddenly realized that somebody cares,” she said, her voice surging with emotion. “She was a Black American, I was a European Jew, but there is, I think, this understanding of human need.”
“I learned that good people can do extraordinary things but we do not know who you good people are, so you are going to have to show signs of these extraordinary things” she told the students.
Arriving in the United States she could not speak a word of English. Sally learned English, became educated and earned her teaching degree. In 1958, Sally became a teacher and taught for years at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn New York and retired in 1991. Frishberg believes she was saved from the holocaust so she could help educate today’s generation about the world’s mistakes from the past.When asked if she thought the Holocaust could happen again, she said, “Tragedy could happen. Yes, it could. I want our young people to be alert, aware, eyes wide open, willing to act when necessary and do what is good for all of us.” That is why we have the “Words of Bonds” project Sally’s.
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