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Kibitz with Keren | Ep. 705: Sadie Herz, A Witness to a Witness | HMTC

Sadie Herz entered UJA’s Witness Project expecting to learn from a Holocaust survivor. After hearing Christine Keren’s testimony, she realized that learning was not enough. She had become responsible for carrying the story forward.

On Kibitz with Keren, host Doron Keren speaks with the high school senior who was paired with his mother through the program. Sadie explains why survivor testimony creates both intellectual and emotional connections, and why her generation must become “witnesses to a witness.”

The conversation explores Jewish identity, Holocaust education, leadership, work ethic, campus safety, and Sadie’s ambitions in applied mathematics and astrophysics. She also describes experiencing antisemitic harassment at school and how questioning hatred strengthened her determination to educate others.

Through research, teaching, advocacy, and an unapologetic sense of self, Sadie represents a generation prepared to remember, speak, and act. Her message is clear: the future changes only when people choose to change it.

Kibitz with Keren on hmTv | Host: Doron Keren | Guest: Sadie Herz
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
3:51 What Gives Sadie Hope?
4:45 Turning Learning Into Education
5:36 Carrying Christine Keren’s Story
7:54 Why Survivor Testimony Changes Learning
9:23 Becoming a Witness to a Witness
10:05 Identity Before College
12:45 Work and the Value of Money
14:55 Choosing a Supportive College
17:22 Astrophysics and Future Ambitions
19:04 A Strong Jewish Woman in STEM
20:08 Facing Antisemitism at School
23:21 Questioning Hatred and Standing Proud
24:36 Closing

HASHTAGS

#KibitzWithKeren #HolocaustEducation #JewishIdentity #Upstander #HMTC

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Ordinary Heroes | Ep. 704: Julie Budd, From Brooklyn to Sinatra and Beyond | HMTC

At 15, Julie Budd walked into a Las Vegas rehearsal and discovered that the person blowing kisses from the wings was Frank Sinatra. He had personally chosen her to open his show and later asked her to keep the American Songbook alive.

On Ordinary Heroes, host Bernie Furshpan welcomes his friend for a conversation spanning her Brooklyn childhood, Jewish upbringing, early television career, legendary collaborators, and performances at the Metropolitan Room.

Julie explains how family, faith, discipline, and a strong sense of identity protected her while growing up in show business. She also shares her grandmother’s heartbreaking family letters from Europe, memories of Holocaust survivors, and the lesson her mother taught her: be kind because you never know what someone is facing.

Bernie and Julie reflect on antisemitism, misinformation, empathy, critical thinking, and the responsibility to resist cruelty. Through every chapter of her life, Julie returns to optimism, gratitude, and the belief that humanity can still choose a better path.

Ordinary Heroes on hmTv | Host: Bernie Furshpan | Guest: Julie Budd
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
3:17 Brooklyn Roots and Jewish Identity
6:09 A Childhood Career in Show Business
9:43 Meeting Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas
13:49 The Metropolitan Room and Lifelong Friendship
15:05 Julie’s Family and Holocaust Memory
22:41 Understanding Trauma and Survival
23:21 A Mother’s Lesson in Empathy
25:04 Compassion for People Seeking Safety
27:34 Antisemitism and Religious Freedom
29:24 Social Media, Misinformation, and Hate
34:47 Education, Critical Thinking, and Moral Clarity
40:03 Choosing Optimism and Moving Forward
42:53 Closing

HASHTAGS

#OrdinaryHeroes #JulieBudd #JewishIdentity #Empathy #HMTC

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The Dana Download | Ep. 703: Daniella Rabbani, Carrying Yiddish Forward | HMTC

Yiddish first surrounded Daniella Rabbani as the adults’ language, spoken by her Holocaust survivor grandparents but not passed directly to her. Years later, music helped her reclaim it.

On The Dana Download, host Dana Arschin Kraslow speaks with the actor and singer about her Ashkenazi and Sephardic roots, learning Yiddish as an adult, and carrying its humor, history, and emotional depth to new audiences.

Daniella performs and reflects on “Oyfn Pripetshik,” a beloved song about children learning the Hebrew alphabet. She explains how its message of literacy, memory, and generational continuity gained new meaning after the Holocaust.

Their conversation also explores Jewish languages, inherited trauma and resilience, Yiddish theater, and the cultural connections that unite diverse Jewish communities. Through her album Klezmeret and its documentary companion, Daniella invites listeners not only to preserve Yiddish, but to experience it as a living language filled with learning, laughter, music, and belonging.

The Dana Download on hmTv | Host: Dana Arschin Kraslow | Guest: Daniella Rabbani
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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Follow @DaniellaRabbani on Instagram for Klezmeret music and concert information.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
1:33 A Friendship Rooted in Shared Identity
3:43 Family History and the Yiddish Language
6:35 Learning Yiddish Through Music
8:07 A Song Revives Family Memory
10:27 Yiddish Across Jewish Communities
14:17 “Oyfn Pripetshik” and Jewish Literacy
17:28 A Lullaby Transformed by History
20:05 Interpreting and Renewing Yiddish Music
21:00 The Klezmeret Album and Documentary
22:06 Yiddish Songs in Performance
24:08 How Listeners Can Begin
24:53 The Meaning of Klezmeret
25:38 Closing

HASHTAGS

#TheDanaDownload #Yiddish #JewishCulture #JewishMusic #HMTC

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The Dana Download | Ep. 702: Lynne Goldberg - Catching Your Breath | HMTC

After two cancer diagnoses, the end of a 20-year marriage, her daughter leaving for college, and a major career change, Lynne Goldberg faced a question: What comes next?

On The Dana Download, host Dana Arschin Kraslow speaks with the author of Catching Your Breath, meditation teacher, speaker, and co-founder of the Breethe app about grief, reinvention, inherited trauma, and conscious choice. Lynne also reflects on losing twin daughters after their premature birth and later becoming the mother of three children, two through adoption and one biologically.

Dana shares how her grandfather’s survival at Auschwitz shaped her identity and work documenting Holocaust testimony. Together, they explore how pain and silence travel through families and how awareness can interrupt recurring patterns. Lynne introduces “choicefulness” and five principles for navigating change: radical recognition, feeling your feelings, adaptability, alchemy, and rising. Her message is clear: we cannot control every event, but we can choose how we meet what comes next.

The Dana Download on hmTv | Host: Dana Arschin Kraslow | Guest: Lynne Goldberg
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
3:03 Catching Your Breath begins
4:04 Cancer, divorce, and major life changes
6:11 Losing twin daughters and finding family
8:34 Recognizing patterns and rewriting the ending
10:42 Dana’s inherited Holocaust memory
12:41 Generational trauma and shared patterns
15:55 Meditation, choicefulness, and conscious response
18:33 Five principles for navigating change
20:54 Catching patterns without chasing perfection
22:14 Where to find Lynne’s book and work
22:42 The moment meditation changed everything
23:53 What meditation really means
24:25 Closing

HASHTAGS

#TheDanaDownload #CatchingYourBreath #Meditation #Resilience #HMTC

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Ordinary Heroes | Ep. 701: Dr. Greg Weiner - First Jewish President of a Catholic University | HMTC

Growing up in the only Jewish family in a small Texas town taught Dr. Greg Weiner that a strong identity can make genuine friendship across differences possible. Today, as the first Jewish president of a Catholic university, he brings that lesson to higher education.

In Episode 700 of Ordinary Heroes, host Bernie Furshpan speaks with the Assumption University president about faith, liberal education, antisemitism, and civic friendship. Greg explains what Jewish and Catholic intellectual traditions share, why productive disagreement requires more than politeness, and how common commitments can transform opponents into fellow citizens.

Their conversation also considers what Jewish families should seek in a university, why education without moral character is insufficient, and the urgency of preserving survivor testimony as direct memory fades. Greg’s message is clear: college should not confirm that students already know everything. It should cultivate curiosity, nuance, intellectual humility, and the courage to seek truth while respecting the identities and beliefs of others.

Ordinary Heroes on hmTv | Host: Bernie Furshpan | Guest: Dr. Greg Weiner
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:13 Growing up Jewish in small-town Texas
4:15 First Jewish president of a Catholic university
5:30 Jewish and Catholic traditions of learning
7:36 A responsibility to speak after October 7
10:28 What Catholic colleges can offer Jewish students
12:43 Art and interfaith engagement
14:58 Civic friendship and productive disagreement
16:43 Identity as a foundation for respect
18:22 Holocaust survival, faith, and memory
23:22 How ordinary people become participants in hate
23:56 Education, character, and antisemitism
26:07 Curiosity, nuance, and the purpose of college
27:10 Closing

HASHTAGS

#OrdinaryHeroes #HigherEducation #CivicFriendship #Antisemitism #HMTC

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Ordinary Heroes | Ep. 700: Dena Schusterman - The Stories We Carry | HMTC

A little girl once asked her father to carry her on a long walk to synagogue. He answered, “I’ll carry you with my stories.” For Dena Schusterman, that childhood memory reveals how family stories give us strength, shape identity, and sometimes need to be reexamined.

On Ordinary Heroes, host Bernie Furshpan speaks with the author of Stories Carry: We All Carry Them. Some Even Carry Us. about faith, family, belonging, resilience, and inherited trauma. Dena reflects on four generations of women, her upbringing within Chabad-Lubavitch, and the difference between fitting into a community and showing up as your authentic self.

Their conversation explores how to question unhealthy patterns without dishonoring those who came before us, how compassion can coexist with accountability, and why specific questions help preserve family memory. Breaking a cycle, they suggest, does not require erasing the past. It means carrying forward the love and strength while refusing to pass inherited wounds to the next generation.

Ordinary Heroes on hmTv | Host: Bernie Furshpan | Guest: Dena Schusterman
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:22 When family stories carry us
5:55 A father’s survival as inherited strength
7:27 Holocaust memory and perspective
8:36 Four generations of women
10:59 The people behind Chabad
12:54 Breaking cycles without rejecting the past
15:21 Resilience, trauma, and what we choose to inherit
17:03 Belonging as your authentic self
18:45 Honesty, compassion, and accountability
21:09 What we pass to the next generation
24:16 Questions to ask while we still can
25:47 Where to find Stories Carry
27:26 Closing

HASHTAGS

#OrdinaryHeroes #StoriesCarry #FamilyStories #Resilience #HMTC

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Ordinary Heroes | Ep. 700: Dr. Greg Weiner - First Jewish President of a Catholic University | HMTC

Growing up in the only Jewish family in a small Texas town taught Dr. Greg Weiner that a strong identity can make genuine friendship across differences possible. Today, as the first Jewish president of a Catholic university, he brings that lesson to higher education.

In Episode 700 of Ordinary Heroes, host Bernie Furshpan speaks with the Assumption University president about faith, liberal education, antisemitism, and civic friendship. Greg explains what Jewish and Catholic intellectual traditions share, why productive disagreement requires more than politeness, and how common commitments can transform opponents into fellow citizens.

Their conversation also considers what Jewish families should seek in a university, why education without moral character is insufficient, and the urgency of preserving survivor testimony as direct memory fades. Greg’s message is clear: college should not confirm that students already know everything. It should cultivate curiosity, nuance, intellectual humility, and the courage to seek truth while respecting the identities and beliefs of others.

Ordinary Heroes on hmTv | Host: Bernie Furshpan | Guest: Dr. Greg Weiner
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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hmtcli.org

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youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:13 Growing up Jewish in small-town Texas
4:15 First Jewish president of a Catholic university
5:30 Jewish and Catholic traditions of learning
7:36 A responsibility to speak after October 7
10:28 What Catholic colleges can offer Jewish students
12:43 Art and interfaith engagement
14:58 Civic friendship and productive disagreement
16:43 Identity as a foundation for respect
18:22 Holocaust survival, faith, and memory
23:22 How ordinary people become participants in hate
23:56 Education, character, and antisemitism
26:07 Curiosity, nuance, and the purpose of college
27:10 Closing

HASHTAGS

#OrdinaryHeroes #HigherEducation #CivicFriendship #Antisemitism #HMTC

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Putting the Brakes on Bullying | Ep. 699: David Ben-Arie - Naming the Harm, Part 2 | HMTC

David Ben-Arie spent years minimizing the bullying and antisemitism he experienced as a child. If others had endured worse, he reasoned, perhaps what happened to him did not count. Only later did he recognize that dismissing the harm delayed his ability to heal.

In Part 2 of Putting the Brakes on Bullying, host Samantha Sosnik welcomes David back for a candid discussion about childhood harassment, adult exclusion, hidden cruelty, accountability, and the lasting effects of being targeted for identity or self-expression.

They examine how parents, educators, and institutions respond when someone is isolated, why removing the person being harmed does not solve the underlying problem, and what it means to stand beside those with less power. David also contrasts painful experiences with the generosity of mentors who welcomed him into his cantorial studies. Their message is practical: name harmful behavior honestly, investigate it fairly, teach accountability, and create communities where difference is respected and service matters more than status.

Putting the Brakes on Bullying on hmTv | Host: Samantha Sosnik | Guest: David Ben-Arie
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:24 Why people minimize bullying
4:09 Childhood bullying and self-expression
6:25 Parents, schools, and accountability
7:05 Experiencing antisemitism in high school
8:36 Can a former bully change?
12:03 Bullying that is difficult to prove
16:16 Choosing kindness after exclusion
17:17 When institutions remove the victim
18:58 Standing with people who have less power
22:26 Why everyone deserves to feel welcome
25:39 Mentorship and belonging
27:30 Adult bullying and professional respect
33:29 Closing

HASHTAGS

#PuttingTheBrakesOnBullying #BullyingPrevention #Antisemitism #Upstander #HMTC

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Unmasked. Unfiltered. Unapologetic. | Ep. 698: Remembering Mark and September 11 | HMTC

Mark had been promoted to broker six days before September 11, 2001. A meeting on the 92nd floor of the North Tower placed him where he normally would not have been, while his wife, Nicole LaMorte, began the morning believing he was safely at work blocks away.

On Unmasked. Unfiltered. Unapologetic., host Bali Lerner speaks with Nicole and her sister, Denise Paredes, about the hours of uncertainty and the moment they learned Mark was inside the tower. They remember a man who filled his home with family, friends, music, and food.

The sisters also reflect on the strength of family, the enduring bond between their parents and Mark’s parents, and their annual return to Ground Zero. Their testimony reminds us that nearly 3,000 people were not numbers. Each was an entire world to someone. By telling Mark’s story and speaking his name, Nicole and Denise preserve the life behind the loss and ask future generations to bear witness.

Content notice: This episode contains graphic discussion of the September 11 attacks, death, and the recovery of human remains.

Unmasked. Unfiltered. Unapologetic. on hmTv | Host: Bali Lerner | Guests: Nicole LaMorte and Denise Paredes
A production of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
2:36 Denise remembers the morning of September 11
7:22 Nicole explains why Mark was in the North Tower
9:06 The search for information begins
12:29 Sisters separated by silence and uncertainty
13:30 Searching hospitals for Mark
17:53 Bearing witness to nearly 3,000 lives
19:24 Hope after the towers fell
22:46 Learning that Mark had been identified
27:45 A family bond that endured
30:43 Remembering Mark’s joy and generosity
34:56 Returning to Ground Zero every year
36:18 Why the names remain the center
40:35 Closing

HASHTAGS

#UnmaskedUnfilteredUnapologetic #September11 #Remembrance #Family #HMTC

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