On Tuesday, July 29, 2003 , amidst a moving ceremony, the Lyceum 53 of Montevideo, an educational institution affiliated to the Secondary Education Council of the National Administration of Public Education of Uruguay, was officially named after Raoul Wallenberg. The initiative was endorsed by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, a non-governmental educational organization founded by the Argentine Baruch Tenembaum.
The idea of naming Raoul Wallenberg a Lyceum of the Uruguayan capital belongs to the congressman Dr. Nahum Bergstein and was voted unanimously by the Legislative Power, in National Assembly.
The ceremony counted with the presence of Bergstein as well as the General Director of Secondary Education Council, Jorge Carbonell; the Advisor of the Central Direction Council of the National Public Administration, Minister Sirio Nadruz; of the former President of Uruguay and the Honorary Member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, Dr. Luis Alberto Lacalle and Jean Pierre Bendahan, Vice-president of the IRWF.
Besides, the members of the accredited diplomatic corps, representatives of the Jewish community and the Association of Holocaust Survivors, teachers, students and parents were also present.
The Headmaster of the Lyceum 53, Ph. D. Isabel Jauregui, was in charge of the ceremony.
After the entry of the standard-bearers and the singing of the National Anthem performed by the School chorus, Dr. Nahum Bergstein started the ceremony and he described Raoul Wallenberg whom he defined as ”Hero without guns and without a grave”.
Next the General Director of Secondary Education, Jorge Carbonell spoke and closed the oratory Mr. Jean Pierre Bendahan, Vice-president of the IRWF, who presented a sculpture by the Argentine artist Norma D’Ippolito to the Headmaster of the Lyceum, and two Wallenberg commemorative medals to the Headmaster and to Congressman Bergstein.
Once the speeches were over, the standard-bearers left and the march ”My flag” was sung, an allusive plaque was unveiled at the main entrance of the Lyceum.
The Lyceum 53 is a wide building, developed in two floors and built in 1999. A thousand students of 12 to 15 years old attend classes in it. It is placed in the Eastern side, in Gauviyú Street, half a block from Luis Alberto de Herrera Avenue.
On August 4, the day of the 91st anniversary of Wallenberg’s birthday, the General Director of ORT University of Uruguay, Charlotte Strawszynski de Grünberg , who spent her childhood in Belgium hiding from the Nazis, and Dr. Miguel Bresciano, Director of Study Affairs of the ORT University of Uruguay, laid flowers next to the monument of the Swedish diplomat installed in the Battle Park.
