Jewish Ledger
Stamford students become a voice for Holocaust survivors
S
iegmund Listwa had a lot to teach Julianne Katz and, admits Julianne, “I had a lot to learn.”
And learn she did recently, when the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy Upper School junior participated in the school’s new Holocaust Fellowship program. Presented in conjunction with the Anachnu Holocaust Survivor program of the Schoke Jewish Family Service of Fairfield County, the Holocaust Fellowship program partners students at the Stamford school with survivors to record the survivors’ stories, followed by a school presentation.
“In March 2020, Schoke JFS and BCHA launched a program through which students were trained in Person-Centered, Trauma-Informed (PCTI) practices prior to interviewing survivors with whom they were partnered, with the goal of creating a live history theater,” explains Rebekah Kanefsky, Schoke JFS Director of Case Management and Family Life Education Coordina
By Judy Berger | December 24, 2020
Elissa Tobin, a sixth grader at Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy, celebrated her bat mitzvah the weekend of December 19. Like many bar and bat mitzvah youth, Elissa had to deviate from her original celebration plan of a big women’s tefillah at Agudath Sholom, where she would give a dvar Torah from the bimah at the conclusion of services, followed by a lunch at the synagogue for family and friends. This plan was whittled down, to a women’s tefillah of 25 participants, a Zoom Havdalah which included both a dvar Torah from Elissa and a photo montage. Elissa’s weekend concluded with a Sunday drive-by of local friends and family to wish Elissa mazal tov.