For its seventh year, Rabbi Peach Raymon Yeshiva’s eighth grade class launched the start of their “Names, Not Numbers©” year-long Holocaust program. “Names, Not Numbers©” is an interactive, multi-media Holocaust project created by educator Tova Fish-Rosenberg.

To officially begin this inspiring program, the class heard in-person opening remarks from Fish-Rosenberg, as well as Head of School Rabbi Daniel Loew. Rabbi Loew discussed the significance of this program and how important it is for each student to be a part of the legacy that “Names, Not Numbers©” will leave behind. The students also had the incredible opportunity to hear from journalist, Jeanette Friedman, on how to prepare and conduct a proper interview. Over Zoom, she educated the students, teaching them key interview methods and skills that will help them later in the year when they interview Holocaust survivors.

Just like the initial meeting with Friedman was done virtually, the students will “visit” the Holocaust Museum virtually as well. In class, their teachers, Rabbi Lapa and Morah Nitza, will prepare and guide them as they study the Holocaust, learn about the survivors’ stories and prepare their interview questions.

What makes this Holocaust program exceptional is that as the students train with professionals to interview and film the participating survivors, they themselves will be filmed by an expert filmmaker, resulting in an unforgettable film. This film will be screened for all of the RPRY community this spring.

The students were inspired and moved by this initial exercise and they look forward to continuing this amazing program throughout the year.