In 1939, seven-year-old Miriam Schreiber should have started first grade. Instead, she spent that year — and the following five — trying to survive. She was living in Poland when World War II broke out. "My entire life was ruined within minutes," she says, "I was looking forward to starting school." But she never made it. And not having a degree made her depressed for a long time.
Decades later, though, the now 89-year-old Holocaust survivor finally got something she had always longed for. Kapiloff Brander, director of community programs at Jewish Family Services, reached out to the New England Jewish Academy, a Jewish high school, to ask whether the school could help Mariam fulfill her wish. Richard Nabel, the principal of the school, brought a few senior students to Miriam's home to hear her story before they came up with the idea of presenting her an honorary diploma at the school's 2020 graduation ceremony.
Miriam suffered a lot in a slave labor camp in Siberia before she got liberated in 1946. She and her remaining family members went to a refugee camp in Germany, where she got married and had her first child at the age of 16. Having spent years in refugee camps in different countries, she finally immigrated to America in 1960. Getting a formal education was never an option for her but she learned seven languages over the years. "I educated myself," she says, "I read books day and night. I still do."
On August 16, during a socially distanced ceremony in the school gym, Miriam was presented with a high school diploma from the New England Jewish Academy. "There weren't too many dry eyes among the 30 of us there," says Nabel. Miriam's family was especially moved. "I'm not sure she even realizes the importance of that moment to me," says Bernie, her eldest son. "I am so proud of her."
