Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 26, 2022

The premiere of Bare Witness 2022 was held June 2 at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck. The multimedia production part film and part live theater was the culmination of the year-long interdisciplinary Bare Witness Project of the 12th-grade Holocaust Studies class taught by Cary Reichardt and Rebecca Lopkin. Through the project, which bridges the gap between a typical history class and a dramatic production, the students learned about the Holocaust, racism, genocide, and World War II, and met with four Holocaust survivors, who recounted their experiences and answered questions from the class members.

The educators feel that interacting with survivors has the greatest impact on students: they own their learning, its personal, and it becomes a part of who they are. The project includes acting and playwriting workshops, with the students processing their feelings and sharing their thoughts and insights while working collaboratively. They created original scripted scenes incorporating the survivors stories. After the script was completed, students were cast in roles and rehearsed the production, followed by two weeks of filming. Theentire film portion was shot in Bergen County and around the TABC campus, where brick walls were the backdrop for ghettos, train tracks were the setting for arrival at Auschwitz, and a park was the setting for the prisoners work detail.

One parent of a cast member said that viewing Bare Witness 2022 was extremely moving and emotional for us. The gift that youve given our family is priceless. Telling the Holocaust stories are important, but acting in some of those stories is so much more powerful.

Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

This was an experience that will last a lifetime, and the students will be able to share these stories with their children and grandchildren. Thank you for giving them this great opportunity.

TABCs program, said the educators, is essential now as todays high school students are the final generation to have the opportunity to meet and interact with Holocaust survivors; this is the bare point, when few eyewitnesses are left to share their experiences with younger generations. TABC feels confident that its students have become faithful witnesses in ensuring the world will never forget.

Go here to see the original:

Students Bare Witness as culmination of Shoah studies, telling survivors stories - The Jewish Standard

Category: Shoah
Tags: