Four students from Greenport High School — Allie, Bray, Daniel and Sam — their teacher, Brian Toussaint, and the principal of the high school, Gary Kalish, were guests at the shul’s Shabbat service on Friday, May 5. The students, having visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City as the culmination of their social studies unit on the Holocaust, offered to share their learning in connection with that dark period in history and their personal reactions to what had occurred.

As it happened, the GHS curriculum dovetailed with the Yellow Candle Project at our shul, first introduced last year by shul member Chuck Simon and coordinated this year, in part, by shul member Tom Byrne. Funds donated to the project by shul members and friends were used to help sponsor the bus trip to the museum’s exhibit titled “The Holocaust: What Hate Can do.” The students’ collective aversion to the Nazi-led events during WWII and their appreciation to shul members for “punctuating the learning experience with the museum trip,” the school principal said, were evident throughout the presentation. [Those who have not yet contributed to the project may still do so.]

Allie pointed out the “devastating effects” of intolerance, noting how the opportunity to hear testimony from a Holocaust survivor had resonated with her understanding of that time.

Bray appreciated the museum’s focus on the prisoners’ individual stories, and how those stories had provided insight into each one’s personality.

To Daniel, the ability of the prisoners to “cling to hope” in the face of evil, even during a death march, he said, made a lasting impression.

Sam acknowledged a better understanding of those events, noting that “the world is a better place today,” and his hope that it will remain that way.

Following their individual commentaries, the students initiated a back-and-forth with shul members about freedom, the responsibilities of power, and antisemitism in the world today. As shul president Judith Weiner pointed out, “You are the future policymakers and parents. With your awareness of the evils of the past, you can change the future.”        [Photo courtesy The Museum of Jewish Heritage]