The eighth grade students at the Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva (RPRY) in Edison started the school day on Wednesday, Sept. 18 with an assembly to mark the start of the “Names, Not Numbers©” project.
In this year-long project, groups of students will conduct interviews with Holocaust survivors while filming the encounters. The interviews will be edited and compiled into a film. The effort will culminate in the community screening of the film “Names, Not Numbers©”: A Movie in the Making.” “Names, Not Numbers©” is a Holocaust oral history film project and curriculum that was created by award-winning educator Tova Fish-Rosenberg.
At the assembly, Head of School Rabbi Michael Ribalt spoke of the vital importance of the students’ efforts to chronicle the experiences of survivors, noting that they are the last generation that will have personal contact with Holocaust survivors. The students heard from Chaya Friedmann, the RPRY coordinator of “Names, Not Numbers©”; viewed a video presentation by Tova Fish-Rosenberg, founder and creator of “Names, Not Numbers©”, on the impact of the project; and watched a video of Dr. Moshe Avital, z”l, a survivor whose moving story was recorded by “Names, Not Numbers©” at one of the other schools participating in this unique program.
Harry Glazer, Middlesex County editor of The Jewish Link, spoke with the students about interviewing techniques and stressed the importance of looking for details which can make a survivor’s story more vivid to viewers of the film.
During the first few months of school, RPRY eighth graders will also study a Holocaust unit and visit a Holocaust exhibit to give them valuable historical perspective as they prepare to interview their survivors later this school year.
Dr. Moshe Avital’s interview.
The student film, “Names, Not Numbers©”: A Movie in the Making,” will be screened for the entire community at RPRY on May 14, 2025. This is the 11th year that RPRY students will participate in this critical program. The “Names, Not Numbers©” program is generously supported by a prominent national foundation.
