SEGULA | September 2020 Tishrei 5781 54 3333 from Exodus Issue 54 NIS 39 | September 2020 Tishrei 3333 5781 from Exodus SEGULTHE JEWISH HISTORY maGAZINE A Brief History of of History Brief A Cantorial Music | Meir Dizengoff | A Lubavitch Tale | Edward Brampton Tel Aviv Tel OR “The Mishna and Talmud ... were never intended, in their true SHUL nature, to serve as an account of history and the lives of the SHOW? sages ... there is a fundamental preference in the literature of THE GOLDEN AGE OF the Oral Law to present matters as part of an eternal present.“ CANTORIAL MUSIC Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael (Steinsaltz) 1937–2020 AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE! TREAT YOUR FRIENDS LUBAVITCH LEGEND MEIR EDWARD BRAMPTON TO A SEGULA GIFT SUBSCRIPTION THE SIXTH DIZENGOFF JEWISH ADVENTURER www.segulamag.com 058-541-6146 [email protected] Rebbe’S REWRITE MR. TEL AVIV IN THE ENGLISH COUrt Lessons from History Innovative Educational Jewish History Programs One Minute to Midnight An innovative Holocaust education program teaches students to create not just oral history but an intergenerational dialogue passing on the Jewish people’s story and values // Tova Fish-Rosenberg eventeen years ago, the National Library of Israel, Yad as a day school Vashem, and Yeshiva University. S principal, I created an experiential project Encountering Survivors to add to our Holocaust studies Hearing a first-person account curriculum. allows the student to become I quickly realized that only a familiar with the face, heart, and small window of opportunity spirit of an eyewitness, forging a remained in which Holocaust personal connection to history. survivors with conscious memories Survivors aren’t just telling their of the cataclysm inflicted on story, they’re reliving it, and the Jewish people could still students relive it with them. communicate their incredible tales, Sharing their experiences is their thereby honoring – and passing gift to both present and future. on – the mission many of them The survivors are witnesses, received from their parents: “to live, and the students can become – to remember, and to tell the world.” must become – witnesses to the The program I devised, “Names, witnesses. Not Numbers,” inaugurated at two As Chaim Weiser, a survivor Yeshiva University High Schools, participating in the project, wrote: has spread to over one hundred junior high and high schools We Holocaust survivors are an and universities across North endangered species. Before too America and in Israel. The project long, the last of the witnesses transforms Holocaust education to the slaughter of our loved by taking it beyond traditional ones will, regrettably, cease classroom walls and turning to exist. It is therefore of it into an interactive, creative, the utmost urgency that we and empowering experience for double our efforts to bring students. To date, more than 6,000 living testimonials to future students have interviewed, filmed, generations. In loving memory of and edited the testimonies of Dr. Moshe Avital, some 2,500 survivors and World Many of those interviewed have Holocaust scholar, educator, War II veterans throughout the never told their stories. Living author, and speaker, U.S., Canada, and Israel. The alone with their recollections, whose unwavering faith, four hundred documentary films these survivors benefit from social courage, and resilience produced so far have been viewed interaction. Intergenerational inspired so many by more than seventy thousand friendships often result as people worldwide and archived by students come to understand the 66 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 67 MTA students interview Dov Landau, survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald All photos courtesy of Tova Fish-Rosenberg Rebbetzin Chaya Small – daughter of Rabbi Shmuel David and Rebbetzin Tzvia Walkin, who received visas from Sugihara and found refuge in Kobe and then Shanghai with the Mir Yeshiva – was interviewed by students from Yeshiva University High School MTA (Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy) communities their interviewees filming and character portrayal, came from, what their lives were interview and research skills. More like before the Nazis’ arrival, and important, these tools can combat what message they have taken the silent apathy that so easily from their past to transmit to the envelops humanity when morality generation of the future. goes astray. In 2019, Tal Naider, an eighth- Dr. Michael Berenbaum is grader at Fort Lauderdale’s Brauser a former director of the U.S. Maimonides Academy, summed Holocaust Research Center at up the program’s uniqueness: USHMM and former president and CEO of the Shoah Foundation, Being a part of “Names, Not whose work has won Emmys and Numbers” was definitely one of Academy Awards. Berenbaum the greatest things I’ve ever done. joined “Names, Not Numbers” We’ve all read books about the as a consultant from the very “Just as one candle ignites Holocaust. We’ve all read news beginning. “ ‘Names, Not Numbers’ many others, ‘Names, Not articles. But now we had the engages students on many levels, Numbers’ has brought light to opportunity to speak to some of working in groups and alone, the most incredible people we’ll reading, listening, creating, and the world, one miraculous story ever meet – survivors themselves. reflecting. It’s a fabulous teaching at a time” – Rebbetzin Chaya tool and a compelling, moving, Small Tools of the Future and life-changing experience for Throughout the project, journalists them,” he explained. and editors, filmmakers, and The media professionals who history teachers prepare students work with the students spend to create Holocaust oral history hundreds of hours reviewing and documentaries that will become a editing the footage to produce the permanent part of museums and Movie in the Making for each school, major academic institutions. This including students’ reflections program equips young people with on the process and a student- tools they perceive as essential edited excerpt from each of that in today’s media-obsessed world: year’s interviews. These men and 66 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 67 Bringing everyone together – students, parents, survivors, school staff and media professionals2873849283 Critics – for the concluding event of the “Names, Not Numbers” program women are also affected, becoming come face to face with people and their ability to transition ambassadors for this process of who are bona fide heroes. eventually from their horrors to documenting testimonies and fulfilling and meaningful lives. preserving memory. Going Public “Names, Not Numbers” The climax of the program is an “Names, Not Numbers” recently challenged kids to think about end-of-year event in which each expanded to public schools and what the Shoah means to them school brings together students has proven a most effective way of on a personal level and consider and their families, teachers, and teaching students of all races and how to act on the takeaways survivors for a screening of its creeds about the Holocaust, the they’ve gained in their lives and film and a tribute to all who have Jewish experience, and the wisdom communities. given of themselves to relive the of generations past. A ninety-year-old and a unthinkable. This final widening Gary Pretsfelder, principal of thirteen-year-old in dialogue, of the circle allows viewers to Schechter Manhattan Day School, passing on our people’s story appreciate the transformative reflected on the importance of this and values – it doesn’t get more power of the transmission of living type of Holocaust education: powerful than that. history. Year after year, the project Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, It’s hard to overemphasize captures the heartrending and professor at Yeshiva University, the strength and power of soul-ennobling power of grappling shared with students the story of the “Names, Not Numbers” with the horrors of the Holocaust. his father, Rabbi Herschel Schacter, initiative. This progressive and It’s a life-affirming experience the first Jewish chaplain to enter innovative way of teaching about for both students and survivors, Buchenwald. Rabbi Dr. Schacter the Shoah guides students in confirming that the latter’s noted that his participation thinking about the messages “names, not numbers” are the core fulfilled three important roles: and lessons of the Holocaust of who they are and the legacy and their own relationship to a they leave us. One, it honors the victims, significant event in Jewish and whose only wish was to be human history. remembered. Two, it shows the Our students were challenged survivors who lived through and inspired. They were fully inexplicable horror that there is engaged from beginning to Tova Fish-Rosenberg Rosenberg is director of special programs life, joy, and family on the other end, captivated by the survivors at MTA and Central, Yeshiva University’s side. Three, it gives the students themselves and moved by two high schools, and founding director a chance to be inspired and their stories, their will to live, of “Names, Not Numbers”© 68 September 2020 www.segulamag.com The Jewish Journey through History Tishrei 5781 69 CLICK HERE TO BUY THIS ISSUE! THE JEWISH JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY.