On Monday, the 28th of Nissan, the Yeshivat Noam 5th-8th graders joined the rest of Am Yisrael in commemorating Yom Hashoa v'Hagevura, our national day of Holocaust remembrance. Our opening tekes, ceremony, focused on the theme of emunah baShoah, faith in the time of the Holocaust. Many eighth grade girls were instrumental in presenting the various pieces of the tekes. Rabbi Beer opened the tekes by shared a moving story about a community in Eastern Europe that used the limited resources they had to create a beit knesset in their quarters and encouraging us all to take to heart the feats of emunah exhibited in our darkest of times. We then watched a short video that shared the testimony of a Modtzitzer chassid who was able to salvage a niggun written for the famous statement of emunah "Ani maamin be'emunah sh'lema b'viat haMashiach..." This niggun was written on the train to Treblinka where, even in there last moments of life in this world, Jews composed and sang this special song (the video is available here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giQxG9nhANY).
The Middle School girls' choir sang Chana Senesh's song "Eli, Eli." Elisheva , Mollie , and Daniella shared a chilling Echoes of Testimony which exemplified the many voices that the Nazis tried to silence; by sharing these testimonies, these voices live on. DJ (Class of 2016), Akiva (Class of 2016), and Ben (Class of 2015) brought the inspiring story of Rav Yosef Kahaneman to life in their dramatic rendition of Yaakov Shwekey's song, "Shema Yisrael." The choir accompanied the song and acting with beautiful harmonies. It was then time for our annual candle lighting ceremony. To introduce this ceremony, rich with meaning, eighth graders Jordanna , Shalhevet , Leora and Gabriella read a meaningful poem that was shared with us by Tal (Class of 2016):
נרות שונים יש בעולם
נרות שבת,
נרות חנוכה,
נרות הבדלה
קלועים כמו חלה
ויש נרות לקישוט סתם.
הרבה, הרבה נרות
בכל מיני צורות
ובכל מיני צבעים
כולם נרות שמחים.
אך יש עוד נר אחד בודד
לזכר בן אדם שמת
נר נשמה.
ויש שמדליקים נרות
בדומיה ובכבוד
ששה נרות בלי צבעים.
כולם נרות עצובים,
ששה נרות לזיכרון
להמון אדם המון.
ששה מליון.
Serena , Yael and Alex then joined their fellow eighth graders in lighting six neirot neshama in honor of the memory and legacy of the 6,000,000 precious neshamot that were killed in the Holocaust. The lighting of the final candle was introduced with the words, "We light this candle to rekindle Hashem's flame, to shine His light upon the world once again, to sanctify the memories of the millions of souls, to honor their praters and all their lost goals; We bless their existence by being alive, to light this candle as proof we survived." Rabbi Hagler concluded the ceremony by charging everyone in the room to take upon themselves the pressing responsibility of bearing witness to our precious remaining survivors, to take upon ourselves the role of sharing the lessons and truths of the Shoah. We are the living testimony of what happened. As a school, we declared in unison our commitment to teach the world the truth, the fight intolerance of any form, and pledged ourselves to the oneness of the Jewish people. Rabbi Hagler also shared the recent IDF twitter campaign where people from all over the world shared pictures of themselves with Holocaust survivors with the hashtag of #WeAreHere. In the Middle School gym, filled with over three hundred third and fourth generation survivors of this Antisemitism who learn Torah and daven every day within the walls of our school, it was clear more than ever that, yes, we are here.
Later in the morning, 8th grade had a guest speaker, Jules Gutin, a Holocaust Educator. He spoke about what happened when Jews arrived at the camps and why they usually did not resist upon arrival or even upon leaving the ghetto to go to the camps. He also spoke about what happened in the different types of camps and what the differences were. Lastly he spoke about examples of the spiritual resistance that was shown through the striving to keep mitzvoth as shown by Rav Oshry and his shaaylot and teshuvot.
Both at the end of the day for 6th and 7th grade and in the evening for parents, the 8th Grade presented their "Living Museum". For many people, focusing on the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust is quite daunting and overwhelming. Therefore, the Yeshivat Noam Class of 2014 has created The Living Museum to honor those who lived through this dark period in Jewish History. For several weeks, students researched the lives of those individuals before, during, and after the war. They gathered enough material to create a detailed biographical sketch of these heroes. Using this historical information, and with the help of Rebecca Lopkin, an expert in theater education, students created their own museum displays to highlight the lives of these individuals. Our talmidim and talmidot found photos and artifacts that were relevant to those they researched. Additionally, the 8th graders worked on two creative pieces for their museum displays. The students wrote diaries, journals, letters, and postcards from the perspective of those they researched. Similarly, they created visual presentations such as paintings, sculptures, and abstract art to represent the stories of the kedoshim and survivors. As time passes and fewer individuals are around to tell their stories, it is incumbent on the next generation to tell those stories. We are proud of how our 8th grade has taken on this responsibility.
