“Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness. Once we have heard, we must not stand idly by.”- Ellie Wiesel
Wagner College Launches Holocaust Program Sponsored by Chai Society
Wagner College’s new Holocaust education program connects local Holocaust survivors to over 200 students at three public schools:
Port Richmond High School (11th grade), I.S. 49 Berta Dreyfus Intermediate School (8th graders) and Lavelle Preparatory Charter School (6th Grade).
These students reflections, and those of students in the Spring, will culminate in a public exhibit in April for Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Four local Holocaust survivors participated in Fall 2014: Gabi Held, Arthur Spielman, Rachel Gottlieb and Chaim Ben-Aron.
The Wagner College Holocaust interns are Audriana Mekula, Lauren Anne Klein, Leo Schuchert, Ruby Sollitto, Shannon O’Connor and Julia Teichman, a third generation Holocaust survivor and president of Wagner Hillel.More than two-dozen Wagner College students applied for the inaugural Holocaust internships sponsored by the Wagner College Chai Society and coordinated by Prof. Lori R. Weintrob (LRWeintr@wagner.edu).
In addition over 200 adult community members participated in the Krystallnacht Luncheon on Nov. 10th, where Gabi Held also spoke, and at the US premier of the film Let’s Go, about a 2nd generation survivor Laura Waco, born in Berlin. Waco and film director Michael Verhoeven spoke after the film.
These holocaust programs are sponsored by the Chai Society, Wagner College.