Thursday, Jan. 27 marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp and International Holocaust Remembrance Day. To honor this day, members of the Butterfly Project and Tikkun Olam, a Jewish cultural club, students senior Hannah Myers, speaker, senior Julia Seifer, left, senior Noa Tako, middle and senior Sarah Goldberg presented an interview with a survivor of the Holocaust, Mrs. Ruth Millman.
Tikkun Olam– working on their mission “to repair the world” — started this assembly in 2010, and has been hosting it every year since. Usually, they host a different speaker each year, highlighting that there is not one “Holocaust story”; everyone was hurt and impacted differently, and it is important to remember and acknowledge each experience.
“The assembly continues to be an event held by Tikkun Olam, but now it is also used to introduce the freshmen to the Butterfly Project,” advisor Mrs. Marisa Behar said.
The Butterfly Project is a student-run initiative that strives to increase genocide awareness and education. “It is important to know what happened in order to know how to stop it to be able to learn from our past mistakes,” said Noa Tako, co-president of Tikkun Olam and member of the Butterfly Project.
Freshman will also participate in the Genocide Artwork and Writing Contest, where they create works of art or literature focused on genocide awareness.“We are very fortunate to live in South Florida where Holocaust and genocide education programs are more revalent because of the stronger Jewish and overall diverse community,” Tako said. “However, even this school isn’t obligated to teach the Holocaust to its students, meaning that our work to educate people on genicides is still not done.”
