“Am Yisrael Chai! [the nation of Israel lives] Nothing will take us down! This is what the [Lubavitcher] Rebbe taught us, this is what we live with. We are going to stand tall, we are going to stand proud of who we are, of our heritage ... and we’re going to get through this," Rabbi Goldstein stated, Chabad.org reported on Sunday.
One congregant was killed and several people injured including Rabbi Goldstein at the shooting attack at the California synagogue in the end of April.
The Eurostars program brings young Jewish people to visit the sites where the Nazis executed civilians during the Holocaust. Other historical site in Poland were included on the trip. Launched in 2012 by the Chabad movement in Russia, the program takes hundreds of Jewish men and women aged 18-28 on subsidized trips each spring to Europe, focusing on those from the former Soviet Union, according to a JTA report on the program. Participants must attend 85 percent of a year-long study program on Judaism.
Two adult Jewish men who never had the opportunity to have a a brit milah as babies, had special brit milah ceremonies at the Auschwitz site during the trip on Sunday. Rabbi Goldstein officiated along with German Zakharyaev, the Vice President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.
The participants recited the Biblical verse, "through your blood shall you live," as the two men were given Hebrew names.
The trip was organized by Yahad under the auspices of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS.