(Courtesy of TABC) Cary Reichardt is the chairperson of the history department and coordinator of Holocaust Studies at Torah Academy of Bergen County, but the title which she attributes most to herself is that of what’s known as a 2G, a second generation Holocaust survivor. She considers her most important mission to bear witness to the Shoah every single day of her life. The past, as William Faulkner said, isn’t over. For those who grew up with testimony to the Holocaust in the form of parents and grandparents, whose own trauma shaped their families, the most tragic chapter in Jewish history literally lives on in their DNA.

It was during the many years of her mother’s illness, that Reichardt made her the promise to carry on the message of “never to forget,” which her parents had transmitted to both her brother and herself, and later to their own children, the 3Gs—third generation survivors. Thus, thanks to the encouragement from TABC’s Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Yosef Adler, the Holocaust Studies senior elective course was born. In her course, Reichardt’s goal is to personalize the experience for each and every student.

Just as there are different types of learners, the meanings and truths discovered through the TABC Holocaust Studies course varies for each student. For some, visual art, music, theater or poetry will make the Holocaust more real. For all students, class visits with survivors always have the greatest impact. Survivor grandparents and great-grandparents are almost all gone. The memory of the Holocaust, too, is tragically fading. As Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian and former director of research at the United States Holocaust Museum, in Washington, had observed sadly, “The clock is ticking…we must make every effort to have our young people meet with and hear from our Holocaust survivors.For who will stand up to bear witness, when they are no longer here to do so?” That is why, every student who meets with a survivor and listens to their eye-witness account, becomes a witness for future generations. TABC students will be able to tell their children, their grandchildren and anyone else whom they encounter in life, that they met a survivor, and they remember their story.

As education today is shifting more toward Project Based Learning (PBL), Reichardt had an idea, and she turned to her colleague, TABC’s very talented Director of Performing Arts Rebecca Lopkin, to see if she would be interested in collaborating on a HUGE project. Both teachers spent much of this past summer creating a curriculum and schedule for their history/theater project, which would never have been possible without the support and encouragement of Rabbi Adler, as well as Head of School Rabbi Asher Yablok. What they envisioned was a student project which would bridge the gap between a typical history class and a theater production. They used journaling, play-wrighting, poetry and visual art to process their feelings, thoughts and insights while working collaboratively to create an original play which incorporated all the survivors’ stories in order to bring their experiences to life on the stage. This inter-generational storytelling aims to create new “witnesses” to the Holocaust.

This project used hands-on experiential learning through the PBL. This is an educational trend which Rabbi Yablok has encouraged the TABC faculty to embrace, and has been shown to truly engage students in a whole learning environment. These students came to “own” their learning, so that it has become a part of who they are. The performance of their original piece of theater based on six survivors’ stories, is scheduled for Thursday evening, April 11th, in TABC, and is open to the entire community. Programs such as this one, are essential at this time, as today’s students are the final generation to have the opportunity to meet and interact with the Holocaust generation. Unfortunately, our cupboard of survivors is almost bare. Students have the responsibility to bear witness for future generations, hence the title spelling and creation of this new initiative, “Bare Witness,” an original TABC student theatrical production. Torah Academy of Bergen County invites the entire community to join together and bear witness, on April 11.