Tonight I wear two hats. As a newly appointed national chair, I bring you greetings, and I am very happy to see you all here. I can tell you that I will do my best to make the 2006 MOL the best ever. As a survivor chaperone five times on the MOL, I can tell you a little what you will experience.

MOL is not a holiday, it is a memorable educational experience, it is a roller coaster of emotions. What you will learn and see will stay with you for the rest of your lives.

In Poland, you will learn about our heritage and the rich Jewish culture, which blossomed there, before the Shoah. Alas, you will also learn about our tragedy, the loss of 6 million of our people, over a million of them children. Only 1 out of 10 children survived; I am one of them.

On Yom Hashoah, you will take part in the March from Auschwitz to Birkenau with thousands of your peers from all over the world - a river of blue jackets as far as you can see - on a road that many travelled not to return. But, we are here, our Jewish youth; Hitler did not win.

In Israel, our spiritual home, you will experience Yom Hazikaron, to remember the soldiers who gave their lives so we can have a country. If we had it before, there would not have been a Holocaust. We would have had where to go.

I had the privilege of meeting hundreds of wonderful young people. And these days when I meet some of them, I am so proud to learn that they have become young adults, dedicated and committed to Judaism and our Jewish community.

And I don't have to worry about what will happen when we survivors are no longer here to act as witnesses, because these young people have assumed the responsibility and are ready, to carry on.

Finally I want to leave you with this: Simon Wiesenthal died today. He devoted his life to hunt Nazi war criminals; he wanted justice for the victims of the Shoah.

We need you to carry on.

I am looking forward to meeting you and travelling with you.

I wish you all Shona tova.