Dear Parents and Students,
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Passover and spring break. It will be good to gather tonight for dinner and study as we are in the homestretch for our Double Chai year with just three sessions left. 7th grade and 10th grade will continue with class learning in the first hour, while 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th will have Wildcard Wednesday elective options. Wildcard Wednesdays are weekly elective options that students get to choose when they arrive.
Tonight is the start of Yom Ha-Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, so there will be a special program in the second hour of Double Chai in commemoration of this day. Students will watch excerpts of a Helen Mirren film called, #Anne Frank: Parallel Stories. The film introduces Anne Frank's story through her diary, the eyes of a contemporary teen, and the true stories of survivors who were Anne's age during the Holocaust. There are brief moments of footage from concentration camps. This not the focus of the film and the majority of it comprises interviews with survivors and family, Mirren's narration and reading from the diary, and learning about Anne Frank through the teen protagonist. The film deals with some of the following questions:
-What does it mean to be a witness?
-How do we develop empathy and identify with another person's experience?
-How does communication and friendship drive out alienation/lonliness?
Please let us know if you have questions.
L'Shalom,
Rabbi Micah and Rabbi Karen
