“Names, Not Numbers ©,” a YUHSB is a 12th grade elective in which participants interview survivors of the Holocaust and compile the stories into a documentary film. The class has gotten off to an excellent start. The program had an inaugural meeting this past Thursday, featuring Head of School Rabbi Michael Taubes, Mrs. Tova Rosenberg and Rabbi Shalom Richter, along with Michael Puro, the documentary filmmaker who has worked with special programming for several years.
Rabbi Taubes began the meeting by discussing the importance of the program and pointed out that the participants are part of the last generation that has the privilege of meeting survivors face-to-face; he stressed the value of knowing Jewish history, as alluded to in the Torah itself. Rabbi Taubes recounted the impact this program has had on students and survivors alike in previous years, and shared his hope that it would become an even greater experience with each progressive year.
Mrs. Rosenberg and Rabbi Richter outlined the details of the program and what it would entail going forward: learning about Jewish history before the Holocaust, taking lessons in videography and film editing and, of course, interviewing the survivors. YUHSB has thus far produced nine “Names, Not Numbers” masterpieces which are archived in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, and in Yad Vashem. The students are anticipating great success in this, the school’s 10th Holocaust film documentary.
By Ari Hagler (‘16)
