October 2022 Portrait of the Month — Simon Gelbart

Simon Gelbart

October’s Portrait of the Month features Simon Gelbart. This portrait was created by high school student Elisabeth U. at a Memory Project workshop in Boca Raton. Using charcoal and white pencil, she beautifully illuminated Simon’s face as it emerges from the shadows.

A caption written for a portrait of Simon made by another student reads “Simon's life was challenged repeatedly, but he always persevered.”

In Omaha, Nebraska, where the Gelbart family settled after the war, The Institute for Holocaust Education exhibited portraits made by students at a Memory Project workshop. Sina Blanker, a survivor from the Omaha community, saw the exhibit and was thrilled to recognize one of them as her father, Simon!

Through that connection, we learned that Simon was a respected shoemaker at home in Poland. He brought his shoe-making tools with him to America and occasionally repaired, but never made a pair of shoes again. His son David donated his shoe-making tools to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which you can see here.