Students at Bolton Street Synagogue’s religious school are getting an education about the Holocaust straight from the source, thanks to a new initiative from Yad Vashem. The religious school is one of many across the world hosting exhibits courtesy of the World Holocaust Remembrance Center as part of its ready2print exhibition program.
A relatively recent development from Yad Vashem, ready2print allows museums, schools and other educational centers across the world to use parts of their exhibits for their own purposes. Some of the many Holocaust-related topics with ready2print exhibits include Holocaust-era art and Auschwitz.
Bolton Street Synagogue’s students picked the exhibit “Stars Without a Heaven: Children in the Holocaust” for display at the religious school. The exhibit, which opened April 28, is meant to make Holocaust education more meaningful for its students, said Director of Education Cory Hermann.
“I’ve been working with the teachers of the sixth and seventh grade classes to figure out how to make Holocaust education more accessible,” she said. “Not just for the students, but for others in the broader congregation. The idea of using a Yad Vashem exhibit came up, so we decided to go with that.”
This was all made possible thanks to a legacy gift from the late Agi Rado, a Bolton Street Synagogue congregant and Holocaust survivor. Born in Budapest, Rado was an accomplished pianist whose performances took her all over the world. Before she died in 2019, Rado often gave presentations about her experience to students at the religious school and as part of the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, which preserves Jewish documentaries and the filmed testimonies of Jewish Holocaust survivors.
Following her death, Rado’s family gifted money to the synagogue to be used for Holocaust education. The idea of taking part in Yad Vashem’s ready2print program first came up when discussing how that gift could be used to enhance the Holocaust curriculum for the religious school’s sixth and seventh graders.
“We’re incredibly grateful for this gift, it gives us the resources to do something that is impactful and high quality and that can have a lasting impact,” Hermann said, noting that she was informed of the fund when she started working at Bolton Street Synagogue in July 2020. While ready2print exhibits can be accessed free of charge, Rado’s legacy gift went toward printing them for display.
ready2print exhibits have to follow specific guidelines in order to be displayed: They must not be altered in any way, which includes resizing the images or adding text. Their files cannot be used for any other purpose without the express permission of Yad Vashem, and those who have requested use of the exhibits must submit a report once they have made them available to the public.
The “Stars Without a Heaven” exhibit chronicles the experiences of Jewish children during the Holocaust, profiling specific Holocaust survivors who were children during the atrocities. Photos of the subjects, as well as drawings and writings from many more children, are all displayed on a series of printed panels.
It’s a powerful experience for the sixth and seventh grade students, who are around the same age as some of the children featured in the exhibit.
Hermann added that Bolton Street Synagogue is considering making these temporary Yad Vashem exhibits a permanent part of the curriculum for their sixth and seventh graders, and that the exhibit subjects they did not choose this year will likely be incorporated in the future.
“[These students’] generation is the last generation that can learn directly from Holocaust survivors,” Hermann said. “My hope is that they become inspired to learn more and share their stories. That way, they can teach the next generation so nothing like this happens again. … Standing up for those who need our assistance and for social justice is an important value in our synagogue.”
