To coincide with the observance of Yom HaShoah in Teaneck/Bergenfield, the Greater Teaneck Annual Yom HaShoah Committee arranges for a local school to display Holocaust artwork. Notified months in advance, the art instructors have always devoted time and creativity into these projects. This year’s exhibit, which was displayed in the Bergenfield Library in April and now is being exhibited in the Teaneck Library throughout May, is yet another example of the inspiration and artistic talents of both teachers and students in this meaningful project. It is hoped that hundreds of library patrons will have seen and appreciated the artwork and its message.
This year, Naaleh High School for Girls, located in Fair Lawn, created the Holocaust Art Exhibit for the local libraries. Art instructor Renee Schneier was most eager to have her 11th-grade Studio Art students create the exhibit which they worked on from the beginning of the spring semester.
The exhibit, entitled “Sole Witness: If These Shoes Could Talk…” was inspired by the horrific, iconic image of masses of worn-out shoes discovered by the Allied forces when liberating Auschwitz and the other killing camps. Each shoe was representative of a tragic victim of the Holocaust including Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled and political enemies, whose lives were cut short needlessly and cruelly. The students of Naaleh “recreated” these lives by becoming “cobblers” and designers as they took a step back to those fearful times.
Utilizing the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s ID cards site, the students proceeded to select a victim whose story resonated with them either because of their hobbies and interests before the war or their heroic actions during and after the war. Some students used the opportunity to remember and honor their own relatives. They then went on to locate a shoe that would resemble one worn in that era and matched the lifestyle and occupation of their chosen victim. Using plaster of Paris, they created a hard mold of the shoe and then proceeded to decorate it with designs that told the story of their individual through drawings as well as adhering objects that related to their lives.
The creative and heart-wrenching exhibit consists of the shoes designed by 16 students from the Naaleh Studio Art Class. They are attached to backing and hung together with explanations. Tali Pfeiffer describes her contribution. “I created a shoe that represents Edith Eger, renowned American psychologist and author of ‘The Choice’ and ‘The Gift.’ I chose to quote Eger’s famous statement ‘You always have a choice’ on my shoe because it exemplifies how Eger teaches that happiness is something you choose. As a young girl, Edith was a ballerina so I chose a ballet slipper to represent her. She was selected to dance for the evil Dr. Mengele, for which she received an extra ration of bread which she shared with her barack-mates. Edith was liberated as she lay under a pile of dead bodies. Edith, now close to 90, still works as a noted psychologist in California.”
Racheli Diament’s shoe represented Rosa Robota. “I decorated Rosa Robota’s shoe with a rose as her Hebrew name was Shoshana. Robota was born in Poland, where she was a member of the Zionist movement. When she was transported to Auschwitz, she quickly became a member of the underground. She helped collect small amounts of gunpowder smuggled from the ammunition factories. The inmates had planned an uprising utilizing the stolen powder. Unfortunately, their plan was discovered and after being interrogated and tortured, Rosa was hanged with fellow female inmates just weeks before the liberation of Auschwitz. Despite her bitter end, Robota has become a symbol of resistance and courage through fighting for one’s beliefs.”
Freda Walzman selected her grandmother, Luba Elishis, to honor and memorialize through her shoe. “My grandmother Luba was an extremely strong woman with a cheerful personality. That is why I chose to paint her shoe bright pink. She wore high heels well into her 80s. Some of the gems that I attached to the shoe are silver. Some are black to represent Luba’s having painted the diamonds on her wedding ring black so that they would not be detected as precious stones. This enabled her to wear her ring throughout the War. The lace that I pasted onto the shoe was a small white square, which Luba would place on the Shabbos table to show her son that a better life was waiting for them after they made it through their tough times. And they did!”
Art instructor Renee Schneier is extremely proud of the projects created by her students and realizes the lifelong impact it will have. Many of them have asked to keep their shoes after the exhibit as they hold great meaning for them.
Schneier is very passionate about Holocaust education, especially for young people. A native of North Miami Beach, Florida, she studied art from high school through two separate degrees earned at Fashion Institute of Technology in areas including textile surface/design and advertising. Her initial career included working for high-end clothing brands in childrenswear design. In 2013, she pivoted toward academics and became the art department chair at Magen David Yeshiva in Brooklyn, where she served for five years. When Naaleh High School announced its opening in 2018, Schneier was appointed Studio Art Educator, a position she currently holds and for which she will be honored at the upcoming Naaleh dinner.
Schneier’s connection to Holocaust education is very much a family legacy. Her parents, Dr. Martin and Geraldine Brody, reside in North Miami Beach, where her father works as a numismatist and philadelist, collecting ancient Judaic coins, Jewish stamps and rare items of Jewish interest. Through his work, he came across many Holocaust artifacts that were being offered for sale on online sites. Suspecting that these sales had ulterior motives such as hiding evidence of complicity or efforts to deny affiliation with the Holocaust, Brody began to purchase many of these objects, which he now preserves. Schneier realized that these artifacts had powerful potential in educating the younger generations. She assembled a suitcase full of items from the collection, including stamps, coins, propaganda comic books, ghetto identity cards, passports, yellow stars, Judaica and many other items and brought them to her home in Teaneck.
Last semester, Schneier offered a course at Naaleh entitled “Traveling Testimony.” The course pairs up students who are given an artifact and asked to research it through online resources to identify its origin, purpose, ownership, history of journey and final destination. Through this actual hands-on experience the students come away with in-depth understanding and connection to the Holocaust in the absence of actual survivors. Schneier is working on expanding her “Traveling Testimony” as an interactive living museum, which she hopes to bring to many schools in the tri-state area.
Adding to all of her accomplishments, Schneier is a talented artist whose painting reflects general and Jewish themes. An exhibition of her works will be presented at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in the Fall.
To contact Renee Schneier about any of her art and Holocaust projects email her at [email protected]
