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Old November 14th, 2013 #1
littlefieldjohn
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 8,105
jewsign "Paper Clips" project "brings communities together" to train kwan students on Holohoax

Quote:
By Linda Stein
[email protected]


Jodi Silow of Penn Valley gives Shania Davis a big hug as the Tennessee students arrived at Har ZIon Friday evening. Photo Pete Bannan


A paper clip is a small thing.

However, that mundane object has come to mean much more for students in a small Tennessee town and of late, paper clips have also transcended their everyday meaning for some Main Line (PA) teenagers and their parents.

That’s all come about because of a visit from Sandy Roberts, a Whitwell, Tenn., teacher who came to Lower Merion to speak to students enrolled at Har Zion Temple High School of Jewish Studies in Penn Valley in 2011.

In 1998 Roberts and another teacher at a middle school in Whitwell were teaching 8th graders about the Holocaust and the Nazi genocide of six million Jews. The students had trouble envisioning the murder of so many people. The town of Whitwell has about 1,600 residents and none of them are Jewish.

After the students learned that Norwegians wore paper clips on their lapels as a protest during World War II, they began collecting paper clips with the goal of gathering six million of them. They wrote to people around the country and the world to ask for paper clips. From there, a Holocaust museum was founded at the school with the donation of a railroad cattle car that had actually been used to transport victims during the Holocaust. Eventually, a film, “Paper Clips,” documented the students’ project to collect a paper clip to represent each Jew that died.

Norman Einhorn, co-principal at Har Zion, said he’d thought the presentation of “Paper Clips” and a talk by Roberts would be a typical educational event and “that would be lovely.” But he was so moved that Einhorn spontaneously told Roberts afterward, “I don’t know how we’re going to do this. I’m promising you we’re going to come to Tennessee. You have my word.”

In April 2012, the Einhorn brought the first group of Har Zion students and parents to Whitwell. This year another group went and Einhorn invited Roberts to bring some Whitwell students here. A group of 56 students and adults from Tennessee came to the Main Line Nov. 1, staying with area families, then touring the National Museum of American Jewish History and the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia over the weekend.

“So intriguing to me is the fact the kids in Tennessee have sustained that,” said Einhorn. “If they can keep [the Holocaust] relevant for the kids today, there is no reason we can’t.”

Sam Gorodetzer, 15, a student at Harriton High School, went on the 2012 trip to Whitwell with his parents.

“It was incredible,” he said. “It was really heartwarming to see the interest and enthusiasm [Whitwell students] had taken in what was traditionally our history and our story. I’m actually Facebook friends with a few of them.”


Gorodetzer’s grandfather escaped from Germany when he was young boy, he said, so the Holocaust is not an abstract historical event for him.

People, he said, “should know what we went through as Jews so it never happens again.”

His father, Jay Gorodetzer, said the trip to Whitwell was very moving for him, as well.

“From a parent’s perspective, I thought it was amazing these other young students in a town that probably had never met many if any Jewish people took the initiative to continue on a project their teachers and classmates started several years ago. They’re willing to learn about the Holocaust. So many public schools in our area, which is rich in Jewish history, have not taken the initiative to teach the Holocaust.”

Only 10 states require Holocaust studies as mandatory in their curriculum and Pennsylvania is not one of them, said Gorodetzer. [However, Doug Young, a spokesman for the Lower Merion School District, said students do learn about it.]

Many of those who survived the Holocaust, and even their children, are passing away, Gorodetzer said.

“For our kids to go out and meet with [the Tennessee students] was really special,” he added. The family hosted students from Tennessee over the weekend.

“There was a literally a red carpet welcome,” he said. “It was really nice, high energy. Students, family, community members” were on hand to welcome the visitors, he said. The guests attended a traditional Shabbat dinner and services on Friday evening.

“It was just an amazing weekend,” said Jay Gorodetzer. “It really was a community effort.”

Other area synagogues, including Adath Israel, Beth Hiillel-Beth El, Beth Am Israel, Main Line Reform Temple, Beth David and also Gratz High School, are taking part in what’s been named “Philly Friends of Paper Clips.


http://www.mainlinemedianews.com/art...txt?viewmode=2
 
Old November 16th, 2013 #2
John from Canada
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Join Date: Mar 2012
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What an honor it must be for these backwoods simpletons to meet a real live holohoax survivor.
 
Old November 18th, 2013 #3
littlefieldjohn
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 8,105
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John from Canada View Post
What an honor it must be for these backwoods simpletons to meet a real live holohoax survivor.
Don't
blame/insult the kids, John; they probably didn't have much of a choice to turn down the kike " invitation".
 
Old November 18th, 2013 #4
The Captain
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 34
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I remember being forced to watch a movie that revolved around filling a train cart with paper clips... what propaganda.
 
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