Rare opportunities to chat with Holocaust survivors and to have a photo taken with them will be offered to young people and their families on Sunday, April 7, 1 p.m., at the Intergenerational Program that is part of the community commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust memorial day.
The program is titled “Pictures of History: An Encounter with Holocaust Survivors.”It is most appropriate for students who are in grades five and above, andwill be held in the Ritz Theater at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, 6255 N. Santa Monica Blvd.
Hannah Rosenthal, chief executive officer and president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, will introduce the program. Rosenthal is a child of a Holocaust survivor, and formerly spent three years as the Obama administration’s special envoy on anti-Semitism.
The program will be led by teens who have participated in Remember Us, the Holocaust B’nai Mitzvah Project. This program invites every child preparing for a bar/bat mitzvah ceremony to remember a child who died in the Holocaust.
The teens will attend a training session prior to April 7 that will examine Holocaust history and enable them to facilitate the program. The training will be coordinated by Jody Hirsh, director of Judaic education at the JCC, and Bonnie Shafrin, director of the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center. Those who participate will be treated to a pizza dinner with a Holocaust survivor.
Intergenerational Program Planning Committee co-chairs Edie Shafer and Lori Kahn emphasize that, “Soon there will no longer be the living witnesses to this tragic event in human history. We hope young people will take this opportunity to come on April 7 and be inspired by the stories of these courageous people.”
This free public program is hosted by HERC and the JCC. The annual community Yom HaShoah event will follow the intergenerational program at 3 p.m. at the JCC.
For more information or to register, contact Joan Champion, HERC coordinator, joanc@milwaukeejewish.org or 414-963-2714.
