Spotlight on CLAL

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CLAL Honors Holocaust Remembrance Day with Middle School Students

This spring, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Janet R. Kirchheimer, CLAL Teaching Fellow, poet, and author of How to Spot One of Us, spoke to a group of close to 500 middle school students at the Lincoln Park Jewish Center in Yonkers, NY. Ms. Kirchheimer, whose book of over 80 poems was inspired by her family’s tragedy in the Shoah, read from her collection and engaged the students in a discussion about the events leading up to the Holocaust and how to prevent genocide today.

Fielding questions from the audience, she talked about the need for students to take responsibility for their actions, and asked each one to start in his or her own small way to practice tolerance — first with friends and then to expand the circle.

After the program many of the students sent Ms. Kirchheimer thank you letters, and included what they had learned from her presentation. Movingly, they described their responses to her words. Below are excerpts from some of her letters:

"…You are an important witness to this tragedy and your poems will be a constant reminder of this. I, along with my classmates, will carry this responsibility to never forget."

"…It is important to remember the Holocaust because if we do not, we can’t tell the story to the next generation after us."

"…I want to thank you for informing us about the Holocaust so if anything happens again, we will be prepared. If anyone‘s rights were to be taken away in this country, we would be ready to defend them. I want to thank you one more time for taking me into the past."

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