March 29, 2001
by Shari Feirman and Sara Slater

Jewish history teacher Aileen Goldstein discusses the Yom HaShoah environment committee’s plans for somberly decorating the building.

Planning has already begun for the students and faculty involved in the Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut ceremonies to take place in the last two weeks of April.

The Junior class is planning the commemoration of Yom HaShoah, the day when those who perished in the Holocaust are remembered, on April 19.

Juniors are planning to create a somber environment throughout the school using objects reminiscent of war and the Holocaust.

Upon entering the school, students will see chicken wire along the railings to represent the barbed wire that surrounded the concentration camps, according to junior Diana Schonfeld.

Continuing an annual tradition of remembering those who perished in the Holocaust, the vigil committee will organize a recitation of names from 6 a.m. to midnight in the exhibition hall. Anybody who wishes to participate in the reading is welcome to, according to Jewish History Department Chair Cynthia Peterman.

Workshops including speakers, films, art, literature and history studies are intended to teach students about different aspects of the Holocaust, including pre-Holocaust life, deported persons camps and the music that was played in ghettos. These will take place in three shifts during the afternoon.

In addition to other speakers, former first-grade teacher Edith Lowy, will recount her experiences in concentration camps, specifically the work she and others did and how they learned to preserve their humanity.

“I’m [looking forward to] seeing some of my students and conveying the message,” Lowy said.

School Life Coordinator Navah Kelman, who is coordinating the Yom HaShoah workshops, expressed similar sentiments for the goals of the workshops.

“I would like the students to walk away with a real connection to what happened,” she said.

The last component of the Yom HaShoah commemoration is the concluding ceremony which will be held in the gym. The theme of the ceremony, the Holocaust through the eyes of a child, will be portrayed through various skits performed by the juniors, according to junior Ari Cohen.

“It is very important that the ceremony be a closure for the day,” said Jewish history teacher Joanne Yelenik, faculty coordinator of the ceremony. “I think the ceremony is a community experience whereas all the other processing of the Holocaust is much more individual.”

An assembly coordinated by Bible teacher Bracha Ravin, Hebrew teacher Edith Gal and tenth grade students in observance of Yom HaZikaron, the day for remembering soldiers who were killed in Israeli military service, will take place on April 25.

The assembly coordinators are hoping to include a speaker from the Israeli embassy, who has had first hand experience in one of the wars in Israel, according to Gal.

As a part of the ceremony, sophomore Becky Eisenstadt is choreographing a dance which combines both army movements and ballet. The dance, which will be performed to a drum and a guitar, will be “a mourning and cel ebration of soldiers,” she said.

“Yom HaZikaron is a very sad, serious day,” said Gal.

The Zimriah, the annual singing competition between the grades in honor of Israel’s independence day, will be held on April 26, Yom Ha’Atzmaut.

The theme of this year’s Zimriah is L’hakot Zvaeeyot, army troops. Each grade will represent one section of the Israeli army by singing a related song in the Zimriah.

Chair of the Hebrew department Yaffa Dagony wants students to feel excited about the existence of Israel.

“A mission statement of the school is Ahavat Yisrael, [the love for Israel], and [the Zimriah] is a very good way to achieve it,” Dagony said.

For the past two years, the class of 2002 has won the competition. If it wins this year, it will be the second class ever to win for three consecutive years.

“I think that we’ve won the past two years because on the day of Zimriah we are able to bring everyone together, and everyone is involved, excited and wants to win,” said junior Shanna Bernstein. “I think [Zimriah] is really exciting because it’s something that really brings our class together,” she said.