By COLlive reporter
An event at the New York Bar Association commemorating the Holocaust Remembrance Day this week took a surprise – and inspiring – turn.
Over 120 lawyers from the New York area were in attendance at the event, “The Sound of the Siren: Commemorative Reflection on the History of the Holocaust and the Rise of Global Antisemitism.”
It featured three recent reports (one from the European Affairs Committee) of the New York City Bar Association, which addresses the antisemitic conspiracy theory, Holocaust Denial and Distortion and the rise of Antisemitism in Western and Eastern Europe.
Speakers included Yehudit Barsky of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, and Committee on Middle Eastern and North African Affairs; Holocaust survivors Asya Shindelman and Sami Steigmann, and Scott Richman of the Anti-Defamation League, among others.
The event was organized and moderated by Sophia Murashkovsky Romma, international human rights attorney and the Co-Chair of the United Nations Committee of the New York City Bar Association, as well as a member of the Council on International Affairs at the NYCBA.
Murashkovsky Romma invited Chabad bochurim Shneor Zalman Halperin and Yanky Horowitz, students at Oholei Torah Yeshiva in Crown Heights, to attend the event, and they arrived equipped with Tefillin.
The pair of Tefillin paid off when one of the lawyers, after speaking with the two bochurim, requested to put on Tefillin in front of the crowd of his colleagues. With no objection, he want on to do so and dedicated his davening in memory of the 6 million Jews who perished.
“It was an emotional moment, and a statement of ‘am Yisrael Chai,'” one of the bochurim told COLlive.com.
Wooo hoo Yanky and Shneur! Emese Chasidishe bochrim!!