World News for Students of English

25-11-2021 15:00

An annual Israeli beauty pageant crowned an 86-year-old grandmother Miss Holocaust Survivor; it was designed to honor women who endured the horrors of Nazi genocide.

Ranging in age from 79 to 90, the contestants wore fashionable clothes, and with full hair and makeup, they walked on the catwalk in Jerusalem.

Organizers say that the contest presents glamour and respect to the shrinking number of Jewish women who lost their youth during World War II; later, they built new lives in Israel. The winner Salina Steinfeld was born in Romania where she survived Nazi attacks before moving to Israel in 1948. Other contestants included a woman born in Yugoslavia who survived a concentration camp in today’s Croatia.

Some critics and survivors worry that the event cheapens the memory of the 6 million Jews who the Nazis killed. However, others argue that the contestants deserve everyone to see the beauty in these women who went through such horror.

Difficult words: pageant (a beauty contest), genocide (the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular country or ethnic group), cheapen (to make someone or something seem less valuable or important).

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