Holocaust Survivors at International Catholic Retreat
10 April 2015
Media Release
Catholic ‘Retreat’ Features Strong Jewish Theme, Int’l and Local Speakers, Starts Tonight
A St Heliers couple who survived the Holocaust are part of an amazing line-up of local and international speakers set
for the Friday-SundayEucharistic Convention at Glendowie’s Sacred Heart College Auditorium.
Speakers include:
• Bob and Freda Narev – The St Heliers Bay residents barely escaped the Nazis, yet made it to New Zealand, married, raised a family and each
contributed so much to the Jewish and general communities that they received a QSM (Freda) and a NZOM (Bob). Bob, at age
9, (then “Narewczewitz”), and his mother were liberated in 1945 from the Nazi’s Theresienstadt concentration camp in
Czechoslovakia. In 1947, they sailed in a converted troop carrier from Switzerland to Auckland. Freda, from an Orthodox
Jewish family in Poland, was hidden on a farm for three years “living as a Catholic.” Her sister brought her to New
Zealand. Bob and Freda agreed to speak when the scheduled speaker, Inge Auerbacher, was unable to attend. Only then was
it discovered that Inge and Bob had been in the same concentration camp as children.
• Roy Schoeman was born outside of New York City to Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. He was a devout Jew, receiving his
Jewish education and formation under some of the most prominent Rabbis in contemporary American Jewry. He went to MIT
and then Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA magna cum laude. He joined the Harvard faculty and quickly
became a ‘rock star’ professor of marketing, but he lost his faith. Midway through his Harvard teaching career, he had
several supernatural experiences that eventually resulted in his totally unanticipated conversion to Catholicism. His
first book for Ignatius Press, Salvation is from the Jews: The Role of Judaism in Salvation History, was a surprise
best-seller.
• Leah Libresco’s conversion story made CNN because she was best known as an Ivy League atheist blogger. Leah was received into the Catholic Church in 2012, the
year after she graduated from Yale. Today, she works as an editorial assistant at The American Conservative by day, and
by night writes for Patheos.com about theology, philosophy and math. The self-proclaimed “geeky convert who picks fights
in good faith” also writes about Catholicism and myriad spiritual matters on her “Unequally Yoked” blog. Leah was
shocked to meet smart Christians at Yale. “My idea of a Christian was the Young Earth Creationists, and now I was
meeting people who not only were converts to Russian Orthodoxy and math majors, but they thought the beauty of
mathematics was evidence for God.”
• Claire Culwell learned six years ago that her birth mother was forced to have an abortion at age 13. While her twin was aborted,
Claire was “missed”. Her young mother went on to deliver her and adopt her out. Learning of this gave Claire her own
personal ministry.
• Auckland Catholic Bishop Patrick Dunn will talk and celebrate the Convention’s opening Mass tonight at 7.30pm.
This is the 22nd annual Eucharistic Convention. More than 30,000 people have attended.
Tickets are available at the door (Glendowie’s Sacred Heart College Auditorium, 250 West Tamaki Road): Adults -- $60 for
Fri-Sat-Sun; Students and Senior Citizens $40; Under-15s free.
Click this link for the event programme: http://auckland.eucharist.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/03/Eucharistic-Convention-Programme-2015.pdf
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