Splendid work on Lithuanian Jewry

MICHAEL BELLING

Born in South Africa, but living in Israel since 1978 – she and her husband Ronnie Lerer now live in Jerusalem – she has specialised in genealogy and archival research in this field for some 25 years.

Her personal life and work previously moved in other directions. “I changed caps often,” she said.

She spoke on Lithuanian Jewry at an event last Sunday arranged by the Jewish Genealogical Society of South Africa at the HOD Centre in Johannesburg.

She outlined the history of Lithuania, discussed the migration of Jews from there to South Africa and examined the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry in the Holocaust.

Lerer Cohen grew up in Parow in Cape Town and completed her schooling at Herzlia after her family moved to Oranjezicht. She then obtained a BA degree at the University of Cape Town, before moving to Israel with Ronnie.

She then studied at the Israel Theological Seminary in Jerusalem, obtaining a Masters degree in early childhood education.

“I was always interested in the Holocaust,” she said, “and decided to combine early childhood education with the Holocaust.”

This led her to complete her doctorate at the Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford in the UK, on the resilience and achievement of Lithuanian children who survived the Holocaust. She examined whether their early learned experiences before the Holocaust provided them with tools to help them achieve in their lives after the War.

“Their lives were divided into three periods, life pre-Holocaust, the Holocaust and making a life later,” she said.

“They drew on their early experiences to give them the strength to continue post-Holocaust.”

In interviews with Lerer Cohen in the late 1990s, the children often used the word “mensch”. Their parents had told them when they parted, “always be a mensch, remember to give to the community, don’t fall apart, just carry on.

“This gave them an astounding amount of strength,” Lerer Cohen said.

Resilience today has become an important part of her study.

She donned this most recent cap while still working in early child education and bringing up three children.

She was three months pregnant with her third child, Ari, when her father died in Israel – Ari is now 27. Her father’s tombstone bore the words: “In memory of his parents, brothers and sisters who perished in the Shoah.”

“I did not know their names,” Lerer Cohen said. “I never asked. I don’t know if many South Africans do ask.

“This provoked me into turning to genealogy.”

Her main book is a collection of names of Lithuanian Jews killed in the Holocaust. It was published in 2002, before the completion of the online archives. The lists are from the ghettoes and the death and labour camps.