This week at the Yeshiva of Central Queens, to help celebrate the month of Adar and to bring some spirit to a challenging school year, the elementary school students had superhero and sports hero day. Students and staff dressed as their favorite superhero or wore a sports jersey from their favorite team.
While the younger grades were showing their spirit, Rabbi Howitt’s junior high school Gemara shiur went to the Chazaq food pantry to help put together packages for families in the community; and the eighth grade students selected to participate in this year’s Names, Not Numbers© program began to celebrate another kind of super hero. This program teaches students about the Holocaust through the accounts of eyewitnesses, while providing students with interviewing, video, and editing skills, while enabling them to build meaningful relationships with survivors, the true heroes.
This week, the students began the program by learning some important tips on interviewing techniques to help them prepare for the actual interviews they will be doing for this oral history film project, and they met with the videographer to begin giving their testimonials. This is the first step in the curriculum created by Mrs. Tova Fish-Rosenberg, to connect Holocaust survivors with students to help tell the stories that need to be remembered.
