havka

On Monday I went to Akko to listen to Havka Folman. To the extent that there is a stereotype about the demeanor of Holocaust survivors, Havka defied them. Although her experiences were frightening and depressing, she was energetic, expressive and funny.

Havka acted to warn the Jewish communities in Poland in 1939 as a part of the Dror youth movement. The concept of "youth movement" is not familiar to most people in the United States. I went to a summer camp for many years run by the Habonim Dror youth movement (the result of a merger between Havka's Dror and Habonim), and now I'm working on an Israel program run by Habonim Dror, so listening to Havka was especially meaningful to me.

Havka wrote a book, and this article includes a lot of what she said in Akko.