MDS Middle School students gathered together for a special program to commemorate Yom HaShoah. The morning began with an address from the Head-of-School, Dr. Kletenik, followed by the recital of Kel Maleh Rachamim, and a two-minute siren for a moment of silence.

This was followed with a meaningful presentation from the eighth grade students, who have spent the year learning about the Holocaust and interviewing survivors as part of the Names, Not Numbers® program (generously supported by a prominent national foundation). Having learned that when a person becomes a witness of testimony, it becomes his or her responsibility to share what was learned with others, the students showed clips from their Names, Not Numbers interviews and offered their personal reflections. The stories they told about survivors holding on to their lives and traditions served as inspirations for the students’ Jewish practice.

The program concluded with a message of hope as the students sang “Hatikvah” alongside a video of children in Munkacz singing “Hatikvah” in the 1930s.