The Canadian Jewish News, TTiursday, May 25, 1989-Page 3
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From opposite ends of glohe
ORT Students atobassadors^^^^
JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL
At the face of it, they have little in common. She is from a comfortable family in the cosniopolitan city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She went to a Jevvish school, loves shopping for clothes and dreams of putting her language skfills to woric as an En^ish teacher.
He is from a sinan town in central India, and has been working for a number of y«irs as a mechanical draftsman. He wants to better himself by training as a computer programmer. He follows the laws of kashnith and
Shabbat, but his knowledge of Jewish history was, until recently, limited. -
What Sandra Sedler, 18, and Robin Jhirad, 23, have in common is that they are both CRT students, albeit at schools on (^^ite sides of the globe. They have also been touring Canada this month, meeting ORT supporters and visiting schools, as ambassadors of this 109-year-old international network of technical and vocational schools. Every two years, a pair "of ORT students from different parts of the world are sent to Canada for a visit.
They reflect boih-the international nature of ORT's mission and the
diverse students the network serves.
Jhirad, a native of Jabalpor, travelled 1,000 km to study at the ORT India Schck>l in Bombay hi 1984, after nnishfaig high school, to take a 3-year diploma course in mechanical draftiqg. Upon graduation, he got a job at Bombay Metal and AUoys, where he om-tinues to work while enrolled in a new 1-year partrtime computer course.
The CRT India Computer Cientre leads to an Oxford University diploma and is the first course of its kind on the subcontinent. Jhirad said the program has gone a long way to enhance
the image of the CRT school.
Attending CRT and nwving to B^bay has also given Jhirad a deeper understanding of Judaism. His family was religious, he says, but having come from such a small Jewish conmiunity it was difficult to feel connected with the Jewish world.
Jewish' studies are an integral part of the ORT India school curriculum, even though almost a quarter of the 203 stii-doits are not Jewish. The students themselves organize Jewish festival celebrations. Also, Bnn-bay has a 4,000-member Jewish community. The Israeli consul in Bombay
as mem o
■■■■■■By.. ■ MORRIE WARSHAWSKI
NEW YORK —
Simon Wiesenthal has made himself one of the most famous of all Holocaust survivors through his unflagging efforts at tracking down Nazi war criminals.
Now in his 80th year, he has officially sanctioned and served as consultant to a new 3-hour HBO movie Murderers Among Us: The Sunon Wiesenthal Story airing on the Canadian pay-TV channel First Choice at 8 p.m. June 18 and 19.
Ben Kingsley who plays Wiesenthal brings a great deal of reverence to the story: "This role deals with Simon's experience and the experience of the 11 million vi'ho died during the
war. I siippose there's some kind of justice in ensuring that a cry of pain which lasts forever is heard forever. 1 was always sincerely hoping for an q)por-tunity to articulate that cry of pain."
Produced by Canadian filnmiakers Robert Cooper and John Kemeny,. Mur; derers Among Us covers two sections of Wiesen-thal's life — the war years and his experiences at Mathausen death camp, and his postwar work as a Nazi hunter first with the War Crimes Unit and then in his own Documentation Centre in Vienna.
The flhn opens with the scene of Mathausen's liberation in 1945 and Wiesenthars fateful meeting with M^jor Bill Harcourt (played by Craig Nelson) — the man
who convinces the former architect of homes to help root out the architects of the Holocaust.
Wiesenthal is reunited with his wife Cyla (Renee Soutendijk) whom he thought was dead. Cyla spends much of the movie trying to talk her husband into leading a normal life. "Who put yoii in charge? What kind of job is it being a Nazi hunter?" she '■asks..'
Their dilemma is best summed up by the following exchange. Cyla --"I want a child and I want to forget." Simon — "I want iai child and I can't forget.'•
One memory in particular haunts Wiesenthal's dreams — an incident in the camp when a young SS officer, dying and completely swathed in bandages, asks to be forr
Ben Kingsley stars in the title role of Murderers Among Us: The Sbnon Wiesen-
:thal'Story./::.
given fpr kUling Jews. An hicredulous Wiesenthal, numb from the horrors he has witnessed and endured, walks out of the room without giving absolution.
The film portrays Wiesenthal as a man obsessed with a mission to ensure justice and memory — not as a man driven by hatred or revenge. In one scene, he talks anothef survivor out of killing Franz Murer, the "Butcher of Vilna," during a trial in Vienna.
"We.are not killers," pleads Wiesenthail. "We have to sho\y we are better than them.":This provides little comfort, though, when Murer is found innocent on all 17 counts of . murder.
Wiesenthal attempts to pass on to his daughter Paulina (Louisa Haigh) this message and warning against hatred. Wiesenthal's relationship with his daughter fuels some of the more-moving scenes in the film. Paulina is becoming increasingly curious about her Jewishness and the fate of her relatives (all 89 were lost during the war).
She is surrounded by Viennese classmates whose parents wouldlike nothing better than to forget the war and some of Mliom fi^n totid ignoTr ance of the Holocaust.
The cinematography is crisply and cleanly handled by Elemer Ragalyi, who has been given the advantage of historically accurate sets built in Hungary by Jozsef Romvary.
If this film errs in any respects it is on the side of paying almost too much reverence to Wiesenthal. This allows facts and chronology to often take centre stage over the dramatic development both of plot and of character interaction.
But, the point of this work resides as a direct, response to what an SS officer once said about Wiesenthal's wish to fly to America to tell the story of the Holocaust — 'JIow could they believe it? Even if you could prove the unprovable you still could not make the unbelievable believable."
teaches Hebrew classes hi the evening at the ORT school which are open to the whole community.
"After high school, lap-plied to university to study engineering, but I was not admitted. If there was no ORT, it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to get a job in computers because it's the only place teaching that level."
The ORT India school for boys opened in 1960, and the girls' school was added in 1970. The co-ed computer centre opened in 1987 and has 28 students. Robotics is expected to be added next year.
Sedler could have had her choice of schools, but had no hesitation about going to ORT Argentina, which has earned a reputation for first-class education. She is in her last year of a 6-year high school, and is aJso specializing in computers.
"I think the school has the best equipmient in Argentina even at the university level,'' she said. There is a waiting list to enrol in the school, and admissions are limited to the best students. HoNvever, scholarships are awarded to those who cannot afford to pay.
ORT Argentina's Technical High School has a record enrobnent of more than 1,700 students and the ORT H 600 students. Demand for places this year was so high that registration closed after only three hours and hundreds of prospective students were turned away. There are. plans now for a third addition.
Besides computers, the high school offers courses
ORT students Robhi Jhirad and Sandra Sedler toured Canada this month. [Drummond photo]
in electronics, chemistry, administration, construction and mass media, in addition to the regular academic program.
ORT also has a junior college in Buenos Aires, but Sedler expects to go on to university next year in order that she can become an English teacher.
Another factor in Se-dler's decision to attend ORT Argentina is that it is one of the few Jewish high schools in the country, vC'hich has a Jewish population of about 300,(X)0, Its Hebrew and Jewish studies courses are excellent, she says. ■■■
ORT is playing a vital
role for the Jewish community m Lathi America, where it is present in nine countries, she said.
Neither of these ORT schools in India and Argentina receive operatuig budgets from government, and they therefore rely heavily on funds raised abroad.
The students were hosted in Canada by Women's Canadian ORT, which donates scholarships to many ORT schools worldwide. Besides Montreal, their stops during their 26-day stay included Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa.
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