CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST October 2018 AWARENESS AND INFORMATION (CHAI) CHAI update Tishri-Cheshvan 5779 80 YEARS AFTER KRISTALLNACHT: Remember and Be the Light Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 7—8 pm Fabric of Survival for Educators Temple B’rith Kodesh • 2131 Elmwood Ave Teacher Professional Development Program Kristallnacht, also known as the (Art, ELA, SS) Night of Broken Glass, took place Wednesday, October 3 on November 9-10, 1938. This 4:30—7:00 pm massive pogrom was planned Memorial Art Gallery and carried out 80 years ago to terrorize Jews and destroy Jewish institutions (synagogues, schools, etc.) throughout Germa- ny and Austria. Firefighters were in place at every site but their duty was not to extinguish the fire. They were there only to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent proper- ties not owned by Jews. A depiction of Passover by Esther Historically, Kristallnacht is considered to be the harbinger of the Holocaust. It Nisenthal Krinitz foreshadowed the Nazis’ diabolical plan to exterminate the Jews, a plan that Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, Holocaust succeeded in the loss of six million. survivor, uses beautiful and haunt- ing images to record her story when, If the response to Kristallnacht had been different in 1938, could the Holocaust at age 15, the war came to her Pol- have been averted? Eighty years after Kristallnacht, what are the lessons we ish village. She recounts every detail should take away in the context of today’s world? through a series of exquisite fabric collages using the techniques of em- This 80 year commemoration will be a response to these questions in the form broidery, fabric appliqué and stitched of testimony from local Holocaust survivors who lived through Kristallnacht, narrative captioning, exhibited at the as well as their direct descendents. The plight of today’s refugees around the MAG through December 2nd. world will be examined as we ask, “what can we do to help?” How do we tell the stories that need to be told? How do we introduce Remember and Be the Light today’s young people to Rochester Friday, November 9, 2018 heroes with their stories of cour- On Friday, November 9th, join age and moral choices? How do we others across our community engage our students in telling their and protest baseless hatred by own stories of moral choices, fateful lighting a candle in one or more decisions and courage? windows in your home: See the exhibit and discover the vast • Use what you have on hand, array of local resources available to plain or fancy: standard or explore the personal stories of Roch- tapers, votive or memorial candles, yahrzeit candles (these will burn for 24 ester’s Holocaust survivors. hours); electric candles, or LED candles. • PLEASE TAKE CARE to make sure that the candles are beyond the reach Registration and prepayment re- of young children or pets and clear of window curtains. quired. To sign up, contact Chelsea • No candle? No problem. Print out the flyer and put in on your window. Anderson, [email protected]. edu or 585.276.8971. The fee for this Get more Remember and Be the Light ideas at www.JewishRochester.org/ program is $15; 2 ½ credit hours. CHAI. Learn more at www.mag.rochester More Holocaust Programming Resources for Educators

The Lost Family Becoming Dr. Ruth Two Traveling Trunks Available! By Mark Germain by Jenna Blum October 6—21, 2018 JCC Lane Dworkin Jewish Book Festival CHAI’s first Traveling Trunk, containing a complete Holocaust unit for middle schoolers with DVDs, books, maps, Centerstage October 24, 2018 • 7:30 pm posters, photographs, artifacts and curriculum, covered the rise of the Nazi Party and the effects on the lives of Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester German and Austrian Jews in the Third Reich. 1200 Edgewood Avenue 1200 Edgewood Avenue

CHAI now also offers the Poland Traveling Trunk, which picks up where the AREA The New York Times bestsell- last one left off, with the invasion of Poland, the ghettos, camps and PREMIERE - ing author of Those Who Save Long before resistance. Lessons are focused on moral choices that influenced the survival Us creates a vivid portrait of Dr. Ruth of local Holocaust survivors from Poland – where most of prewar Europe’s marriage, family, and the haunt- Westheimer Jews lived. became ing grief of World War II in her third novel, The Lost Family, an America’s Contact Bonnie Abrams, [email protected] to learn about favorite radio emotionally charged, beauti- incorporating these resources as educational tools. and televi- fully rendered story that spans sion sex ther- generations. apist, Karola More CHAI programs and Resources Ruth Siegel Jenna Blum artfully brings to escaped the Congratulations to the organizations that received grants from CHAI for Holocaust programs: Hillel Community Day the page a husband devastated Nazis on the Kindertransport, became a sniper in Jeru- School, Joseph Avenue Arts and Culture Alliance and the Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester. by a grief he cannot name, a salem, and was a struggling single mother in America. frustrated wife struggling to Filled with humor, hope and life-affirming spirit, Becom- CHAI will again be accepting proposals from 501c3 organizations for small grants for Holocaust programs. Contact compete with a ghost she cannot banish, and a daughter ing Dr. Ruth is the untold story of a remarkable woman Bonnie Abrams, [email protected], to be notified when the forms will be available online. who refuses to accept the status quo. Starring Karin sensitive to the pain of both her own family and another Bowersock as Dr. Ruth. lost before she was born. Educators may want to consider important upcoming dates for their students: • The Yom HaShoah (annual Holocaust remembrance) Interschool Program is scheduled for Thursday, May 2, 2019 Reserved Seats: $33 (JCC Member: $29) $12 (JCC member: $10) Students: $20 Tickets: www.rjbf.org/events from 9:00-11:00 AM at the Louis S. Wolk JCC. See the performance schedule at www.jccrochester.org/events. • The communitywide remembrance of Yom HaShoah is the preceding evening, May 1st at 7:00 PM, also at the JCC.

The Jewish Federation’s Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) works to ensure that the Holocaust and its lessons are not forgotten. The Center is located on site at the Jewish Federation, 441 East Avenue. CHAI can be reached by phone at (585) 241-8648.

Through our award winning “Survivors in the Classroom” program, Holocaust survivors address more than 17,000 students yearly, ranging from 6th graders through college students.

Other Components of CHAI include: • Library and media center including books, DVDs and survivor testimonies A New Play by Wendy Kout • Six locally published books of survivor memoirs provide valuable resources for teachers to use in their classrooms • CHAI’s audiovisual archive is digitized! Students can hear local survivors tell their stories at Crafted from the actual testimonies of ten Rochester-based Holocaust survivors, Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community www.RochesterHolocaustSurvivors.org. Center of Greater Rochester in conjunction with TYKEs and CenterStage Theatre has commissioned this new play to • www.perilousjourneys.org, a web version of the book, Perilous Journeys, comprising the personal stories of peril put a human face on this important time in history. A cautionary tale on the risks of normalized hate, this inspirational and rescue as told by twelve area Holocaust survivors and uplifting play ensures that the voices of Rochester survivors will never be silenced. Takes place at the Hart Theater at the JCC of Greater Rochester. With underwriting support from CHAI. • Annual Teacher and Student Interschool Conferences • Traveling trunks containing survivor artifacts, books, DVDs and curriculum materials School performances will take place May 7-9, 2019, 10 am and 12:30 pm performances. • CHAI Update. To register to receive a copy of CHAI Update via email, contact [email protected] • Community annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust remembrance) commemorations Public performances will take place Saturday, March 23, 8 pm and Sunday, March 24, 2 pm. • Poster series and/or photography exhibit for loan • Curriculum and Resource Development Find pricing and information on how to bring the show to your school at [email protected]. • Internships

ALSO: On Thursday, November 1, 2018, 1 pm, learn how to access Rochester Holocaust survivors’ testimonies and To learn more, go to www.jewishrochester.org/CHAI or contact CHAI Director Bonnie Abrams, photographs on the JCC Kiosk and at www.RochesterHolocaustSurvivors.org at the Louis S. Wolk JCC, Auditorium C. [email protected] or 585.241.8648. CHAI update

Upcoming at MCC The Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) EXHIBIT: “Witness the Holocaust: 27TH ANNUAL KRISTALLNACHT of the Jewish Federation of Greater WWII Veteran William Alexander PROGRAM: James Waller, PhD Rochester is dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who were Scott III at Buchenwald” murdered during the Holocaust. The Monday, November 5, 2018 Center is a testimony to the vanished October 29, 2018—November 16, 2018 7 pm European Jewish communities, the Free Free Jewish resistance fighters and the righteous among the nations who MCC Library R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center did not stand by in silence. CHAI is Building 2, Monroe Community College Warshof Conference Center, committed to the advancement of 1000 E Henrietta Rd, Rochester Monroe A/B, Monroe Community College public awareness of the Holocaust and 1000 E Henrietta Rd, Rochester its lessons as well as to the broader Scott was a photographer with the issues of prejudice, racism and human 318th Airbase Squadron and the 183rd At MCC’s Holocaust, Genocide, and rights. You can visit CHAI online at the Human Rights Project annual Kristall- Federation’s website, Engineer Combat Battalion. During www.jewishrochester.org/CHAI his assignment in Germany, he be- nacht program, the lessons of the past came one of the first Allied soldiers remind us of contemporary obliga- Michael Silverstein to enter Buchenwald, a Nazi concen- tions. Keynote speaker Dr. James CHAI Chair tration camp, to liberate prisoners of Waller will draw on over two decades the Holocaust. He was also a tire- of primary research and scholarship Bonnie Abrams less civil rights activist so the exhibit from a wide range of disciplinary per- CHAI Director spectives. His latest text, Confronting also includes panels drawing parallel Chris Marshall Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to between the Jim Crow Laws and the CHAI Program Assistant Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935-1945 Prevent Genocide, is grounded in the implemented in Germany and Nazi- belief that preventing mass atrocity is Rina Chessin controlled areas of Europe. an achievable goal, but only if we have Jewish Federation President the collective will to do so. Meredith Dragon Contact: [email protected] Federation CEO