Abraham and Peg Cykiert

Abraham and Peg Cykiert, two broad-hearted Melbourne-based donors, who had made a generous contribution towards the acquisition of equipment for the Pulmonary Institute at Schneider Children’s, passed away in 2009. As a token of their love for the children at the hospital and their admiration for the hospital’s myriad medical achievements, they also left a generous bequest to benefit the Institute.

Abraham Cykiert was a survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and wrote and lectured extensively about the Lodz Ghetto in Poland, the Holocaust and Zionism. A year prior to his death, Mr. Cykiert sent Dr. Aviva Ron, Chairperson of Friends of Schneider Children’s, a manuscript he had written about the Jews of the Lodz Ghetto. He asked Friends to publish the book and that all proceeds would benefit the hospital.

The book, entitled “Last Summer Days” was dedicated to “the children who could be saved and healed and to the memory of those who had perished in the Holocaust”, and launched by Friends on April 14, 2010.

The ceremony was attended by many dignitaries, among them Minister Yossi Peled, as well as members of the Association’s Board and Management of Schneider Children’s.