Caddish in Sejny - after 62 years
Opening of the memorial stone in Jewish cemetery in Sejny
May 2002. Szewach Weiss, the ambassador of Israel in Poland, took part in the ceremony. Among the participants there were Poles, Jews from Kovno and Israel, and Lithuanians.
Cantor Max Furmański, who was born in Sejny in 1924, spoke caddish. The parson of the Catholic parish in Sejny said The Lord's prayer in Polish, and together they lighted the candle on the Jewish grave.
The Borderland Center in Sejny, the organizer of the ceremony, erected the stone to remind that before the war a Jewish people composed a significant part of Sejny community. The Jews came to Sejny in the 17th century. During the Second World War most of them were murdered by the nazis. Max Furmański was one of few who survived and left Poland after the war. When he was leaving Poland in 1945, he promised not to return. From Poland he was bringing with thim the cruel experience of concentration camps, guerilla war, the loss of his folks. He wrote a book Through the Holocaust, published in English, Spanish, and Yidish, and now being translated into Hebrew. He traveled to the Argentine where he got to know his wife Hilda, and he was a rabbi for 18 years. Then long years he spent in the U.S. where he was a kantor, and finally he moved to Israel where he lives now. In May 2002 kantor Furmański and his wife Hilda took part in the opening of the stone commemorating Sejny Jews. He sang in the synagogue in this little town where he was born and grew up.
"In memory of Sejny Jews" - such inscription was made on the stone.
Max Furmanski
Oct. 12, 2011, 3:20 p.m.
When he was leaving Poland in 1945, he promised not to return. From Poland he was bringing with thim the cruel experience of concentration camps, guerilla war, the loss of his folks. He wrote a book Through the Holocaust, published in English, Spanish, and Yiddish, and now being translated into Hebrew. He traveled to the Argentine where he got to know his wife Hilda, and he was a rabbi for 18 years. Then long years he spent in the U.S. where he was a kantor, and finally he moved to Israel where he lives now. In May 2002 kantor Furmański and his wife Hilda took part in the opening of the memorial stone commemorating Sejny Jews. He spoke caddish and sang in the synagogue in this little town where he was born and grew up.