The students in the eighth grade at the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy have learned about the Holocaust in their classrooms, but nothing has compared to what they learned throughout this past year participating in the “Names, Not Numbers©” program, in which they each interviewed and filmed Holocaust survivors, recording their stories for posterity.

This oral history film project and curriculum take the teaching of the Holocaust and its lessons well beyond the classroom. Students were guided by professionals in their fields on interviewing and videography techniques to prepare them for the interview and filming process. They also had sessions with JKHA Assistant Principal Rabbi Aron Srolovitz to explore the concepts of faith and belief and visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

Working in small groups, students interviewed, filmed and edited eight Holocaust survivors. The school thanks Morris Giklich, Helen Herman, Sonia Samuels, Edith Farben, Paulette Dorflaufer, Rachel Rabinowitz and Dov Landau for taking the time to be interviewed by the students for this important project. The school was especially proud to include interviews with alum Samuel Kaye (Class of ‘51). The survivors shared their stories of life before the war, what it was like living in a ghetto, the feelings of being hidden by righteous gentiles, surviving in the forests and the harrowing experience of being transported to and living through concentration and extermination camps.

The project culminated in a community movie screening on Monday, May 29, at the school, featuring the students’ work woven together with a documentary produced by the professional videographer who followed the students throughout the year. Many of the survivors were in attendance and the students had a private program with them beforehand.

JKHA Principal Debbie Finkelstein who guided the project commented, “I was incredibly impressed with the level of respect that these 13 and 14 year olds showed the survivors. They truly understood and embodied the importance of the program.”

As Head of School Rabbi Eliezer Rubin commented in his closing remarks of the program, these students “now know the importance and the sense of responsibility that they now have to transmit memory, not history, as they share the brave survivors’ stories for the next generations.”