BY HILLARY VIDERS
SPECIAL TO NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
ALPINE, N.J.—At its December meeting, Englewood Health Foundation’s The Breakfast Club welcomed Ann Arnold, an award-winning author from Norwood, and her father, Holocaust survivor Mark Schonwetter, who was accompanied by his wife of 53 years, Luba.
The breakfast, held at the Montammy Golf Club in Alpine, supported The Alice Youngman Fund. Created in Youngman’s memory by her husband, Bruce, the fund underwrites the cost of unreimbursed cancer medicine, treatments and services.
The 2018 Breakfast Club Committee was co-chaired by Suellen Freeman, Beth Nadel, Carol Rubin and Fall Event Chair, Julia Weksler.
After a sumptuous buffet breakfast, Weksler welcomed more than 160 guests and encouraged everyone to make a donation and purchase raffle tickets for the outstanding prizes: a facial compliments of Northern Center for Plastic Surgery, a Pat LaFrieda gift certificate and cookbook, and a Gucci pocketbook. Weksler explained why the Breakfast Club had personal significance to her.
“I first experienced the Breakfast Club as a guest, and I was so impressed that I decided to get involved and help it achieve its goal of increasing awareness about the medical expertise available at Englewood Health,” Weksler said. Weksler then introduced Jay Nadel, chairman of the Board of the Englewood Health Foundation, who praised the Breakfast Club Committee, the Englewood Health Foundation Trustees and the breakfast attendees.
“Thanks to you, people in our community and beyond have found their way to Englewood Health and the many resources available throughout our system,” Nadel said. “Your continued commitment and generosity inspires us to dream, do and deliver.” Nadel was followed by Warren Geller, president and CEO, Englewood Health.
“One of the things I love most about this particular event is the sense of community that it generates,” Geller said. “Today, The Breakfast Club is raising funds for The Alice Youngman Fund and I am reminded of Alice’s incredible kindness and unique ability to connect with people. She was an avid listener, ready to lend an ear—and her heart—to anyone who needed a minute, some reassurance or just a reliable sounding board. Through The Alice Youngman Fund, I know we will carry on her tradition of caring for years to come.”
Geller thanked Bruce Youngman for establishing this fund in his wife’s honor.
“Your generosity will undoubtedly make an impact for the many patients battling cancer at Englewood Health,” he said. The next speaker was Dr. Steven Brower, medical director of The Lefcourt Family Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center and Chief of Surgical Oncology. Brower noted that there is rising prevalence of cancer in our community and that The Lefcourt Center treats more and more patients each year.
Dr. Brower noted that many patients, including those who have insurance coverage, will incur unexpected medical bills during treatment. He explained that these same patients will refuse care or fall into serious financial burden. The Alice Youngman Fund hopes to alleviate this source of stress for patients at Englewood Health.
Following Dr. Brower’s presentation, Weksler introduced featured speakers Arnold and Schonwetter, who took turns at the podium to recount their family’s harrowing tale of survival during the Holocaust.
Arnold’s book, “Together: A Journal for Survival,” chronicles her family’s ordeal. Her grandfather, who was the head of the Jewish community in their village of Brzostek, Poland (outside of Krakow), was repeatedly questioned by the Gestapo and eventually taken away and killed.
“In 1942, of the 500 Jews that had been living in Brostek, less than 10 of them survived, and three of them were my family,” Arnold said.
Miraculously, Schonwetter and his younger sister were able to hide in the countryside where they were saved from imminent death because of the heroism of their mother, Sala Schonwetter, and the non-Jews who gave them refuge. It is a gripping account of how good people risked their own lives to help others during the most horrific era in modern history.
Arnold recently received the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Heroes for Tolerance award for her work and lectures on tolerance. She told the audience that she wrote her book so that the world would never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust and would embrace the ethic of “Never Again.”
“Our message is one of hope. We hope that if we can teach tolerance and respect and love that our voices will be louder than the voice of violence and hate that is in the world today,” Arnold said. @ As such, the book is being used in academic curricula around the country, from elementary schools to colleges.
When Schonwetter narrated his childhood recollections, there was a hushed silence in the room. At one point, he said, “We hid all day every day in the attic of a barn under bales of hay. One day, the Gestapo marched up to the attic and started stabbing through the hay with a pitchfork. My grandmother put her hand over our mouths and told us to be quiet. She was cut, but she never cried out, so they didn’t find us. In the winter, we were hidden in a hole under a pig sty.”
Schonwetter survived World War II and moved to the United States in 1960, with only $5 to his name. Unable to speak English, he swept floors at a factory and rose through the ranks to become manager in five years. He went on to purchase a wedding ring and bridal company that he successfully owned and operated for 40 years.
Schonwetter survived World War II and moved to the United States in 1960, with only $5 to his name. Unable to speak English, he swept floors at a factory and rose through the ranks to become manager in five years. He went on to purchase a wedding ring and bridal company that he successfully owned and operated for 40 years.
Besides Arnold and Schonwetter, The Breakfast Club has hosted many outstanding speakers since it began in 2012. Previous guests have included celebrity chefs, noted medical experts, television personalities and bestselling authors. Each breakfast raises funds to support one of the hospital’s departments.
Photos by Hillary Viders