In JKHA middle school, Yom HaShoah began with a schoolwide Zoom, which set the tone for the day. Classes received profiles of survivors whose stories they shared with the class and kept them in mind as they went throughout the day. A solitary slideshow ran all day with victims’ names and portraits movingly placed on screens at the front of the building next to the portrait of JKHA’s namesakes and Holocaust survivors Joseph and Rae Kushner z”l.

In social studies classes, sixth and seventh graders explored Jewish resistance against the Nazis in all its forms, physical, spiritual, educational and cultural. Each student shared why they thought different forms of resistance were important.

All of middle school came together for a meaningful program, led by eighth graders that encouraged students to see themselves as part of the larger story, taking on the memory of those that were killed. They were tasked with combating forces of anger and hatred, protecting humanity and treating others with dignity and respect.