Here's something I'll bet very few of you, (outside of Oswego, NY that is ), actually knew ...
Fort Ontario, was the ONLY place in all of the United States to house refugees from the horrors of the Holocaust. Most of these refugees were Jewish, but not all.
The refugees were housed from August 1944 until February 1946 when they turned the fort into an emergency refugee center.
They came over from Italy, (where they had been assembled). The 982 came from 15 different countries and spoke over 21 different languages.
One requirement to be chosen to come was that you were not a man of 'fighting age' (because otherwise you'd be required to serve) and you had to be part of a family.
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The Safe Haven Museum and Education Center in Oswego is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of those 982 refugees from World War II who were allowed into the United States as "guests" of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
It has now been 70 years...the anniversary.... and the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance, (of which The Lenster is a part), made their annual "Ride To Remember" to raise funds for the preservation and expansion of the Safe Haven Museum & Education Center.
The Jewish Motorcycle Alliance (The JMA, approx 45 Motorcycle groups from all over Canada, Israel, Australia and the US) came together this past weekend in Oswego, along with several of the surviving refugees, to celebrate this great anniversary.
The Lensters local club, The Hillels Angels, was the sponsoring club and, as a whole, all the groups raised over $60,000 with matching funds coming.
It was a spectacular event
of curse food is always involved !!
Even my cousins from Boston, who had never been on one of these rides before, came to join in.
For fathers day we all got The Lenster a GoPro to attach to his helmet
He LOOOOOVED it....and took a lot of video of the rides.
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The police blocked roads for us as 175 bikes made their way around Oswego for approx 90 minutes while people were out waving us on
The host hotel, The Best Western, was beautiful
the event culminated in a wonderful dinner and fireworks
tomorrow I'll fill you in on some of my fun side trips!
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