An unusual and special event will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Congress Hall in Haifa, where 13 amazing women and true heroes will participate in a beauty queen competition for Holocaust survivors.
The contestants during rehearsals Photo: Samer Odeh Tomorrow it's happening: 13 amazing, strong and heroic women aged 74-86 will compete for the title of beauty queen in one of the exciting and special events "Beauty Queen Contest for Holocaust Survivors" held for the third year in Haifa, at the initiative of Yad Ezer CEO Havre Shimon Sabag, with the participation of hundreds of Holocaust survivors, members of Knesset, ministers and members of society and receives extensive media coverage in Israel and around the world.
Yesterday we accompanied the contestants to the rehearsals that took place in the congress hall and it was hard to believe that those beautiful and strong, smiling women who fill the hall with positive energy are women who were robbed of their childhood and the years of transition to adulthood, women who went through hell but did not give up on life. They managed to set up a house and build a family, have children and have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. These are real queens and heroines who participate for one purpose and that is to continue to tell what happened in the Holocaust and to reveal the stories to the world so that they will never forget the Holocaust and so that, God forbid, it will not happen again.
Hali Ben David, the image consultant and former beauty queen of Israel guided the contestants on how to walk the runway and how to stand and present themselves to the world.
The producer of the event, Ronit Stashevsky: "I am proud to be part of such an event. I produce many events but this event for me is one of a kind. These women are the queens of life for me and are a symbol of life, they are a symbol of bravery, a symbol of victory and above all they are a symbol of proportions, they bring us into the proportions of life and it is very important That our children will get a little more as long as we have it from where. I think that participating in the competition is another kind of victory for them, I think that in this way they can send a message to the world - we won, we are here and Israel is alive."
Retired beauty queen Chava Hershkowitz, 82 years old, who accompanied her fellow contestants during rehearsals, told about her personal experience as a queen: "It's always nice when you win something, but it wasn't my goal to win the title, my goal was to talk about the Holocaust in front of the whole world. It was important for me to participate because I realized that we will once again repeat the story of the Holocaust because I think we forget. I have the feeling that after we die we will no longer They will talk about the Holocaust and as part of the competition that is covered all over the world, many young people and many people are once again exposed to the stories of the Holocaust. It is very important to me that they know this and I hope they know and fight that this will not happen again. I perform in schools in front of students and perform in front of groups of people and in front of soldiers, it is important for me to tell Let them know that it happened and we suffered a lot and that they don't forget, that they don't forget and that they try not to let it happen again is a very great suffering."
The CEO of the Yad Ezer Association to a member Shimon Sabag: "The idea of doing a beauty and character contest for Holocaust survivors came up when I was talking to the association's psychiatrist. The survivors are always busy getting ready and getting dressed before any event, and it takes their mind off everything. So the competition event manages to get them to talk about it months before and weeks before the event they rehearse and practice and it gives They have a good drive, and the most important thing is those girls, because as far as I'm concerned, they're girls because when they went through the war they were either in labor camps or in ghettos and they didn't have any girls. So here we're trying to give them back a little bit of what was taken from them because it's impossible to get everything back, And also to show the whole world that after all we have a strong country and even seventy years late we are giving them and all Holocaust survivors a day of fun."The Live here system wishes success, health and longevity to the 13 heroic contestants, the beautiful survivors: Rivka Kushnir, 86, born in Vilnius, Poland, Rita Kasimao Braun, 81, born in Poland, Sara Israel, 85, born in Romania, Yehudit Rosenzweig, 85, born in the Czech Republic, Rivka Stenger, 74 years old, born in Romania, Naomi Lichthuis, 81 years old, born in Bucovina Czernowitz, Liberta Michaelchoi, 83 years old, born in Romania, Marina Raines, 76 years old, born in Moscow, Russia, Rita Berkowitz, 83 years old, born in Romania, Irit Danziger, 81 years old, born in Poland, Sofia Winogradova, daughter 76 born in Kyiv, Stella Kershts 85 years old born in Poland and Linda Ruben 82 years old from Tripoli in Libya.
One of the contenders for retired beauty queen Chava Hershkowitz (Photo: Samer Odeh)
Photo: Samer Odeh
Photo: Samer Odeh
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