Area teen organizes event to remember the heroes of the Holocaust

Editor April 24, 2017 1 minute read

Photo Courtesy of Christine Strassman
From left are Avi Peled, Ricky Bell Peled, Bielsky partisan Ann Monka and Robert Bielsky.

WEST ORANGE, NJ — More than 200 people filled the theater at JCC MetroWest last week for a Holocaust Remembrance Day presentation with guest speaker Robert Bielsky. Bielsky is the youngest son of the legendary partisan commander Tuvia Bielsky who saved more than 1,200 Jewish lives during the Holocaust and was portrayed by Daniel Craig in the film “Defiance.”

This Yom HaShoah program was Avi Peled’s bar mitzvah project; Avi, along with his mother, Ricky Bell Peled, sponsored and chaired this community event.

Surprising the audience with her attendance, Bielsky partisan Ann Monka gave a vivid description of a typical day as a child living during the Holocaust in the Belarussian forest and regaled the crowd with her rendition of the partisan song.