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Middle School Yom Hashoah Learning: Speak Up: Learning from the Eichmann Trial that We Cannot Remain Silent

If we were to take a minute of silence for each of the victims of the Holocaust, we would be silent for 11 ½ hours. And yet we cannot remain silent.  The Eichmann Trial showed us the power of speaking out against injustice, hatred, and discrimination.

The Hebrew Academy Middle School students observed Yom Hashoah on Thursday learning about the importance of the Eichman trial and how it is our responsibility to share the stories of the victims so that the world never forgets the Nazis' cruel policies of injustice, discrimination, and hatred. Students started in advisory with a presentation from Yad Vashem introducing the Eichman trial to them. During their Language Arts and Social Studies classes, they visited Yad Vashem’s traveling exhibition in which they learned about the trial and how it brought the crimes of the Nazis’ to the world’s attention. 

In the afternoon our 7th-grade class, under the leadership of Morah Noa Zemel, led a powerful ceremony focusing on children and the Holocaust. The theme for the presentation came from the words of Rabbi Lau, a child survivor who became Israel’s chief rabbi: “We will not allow the torch of our Jewish tradition to be extinguished. We will light it over and over, and pass it from one generation to another so that the chain remains unbroken.” 

Inspired by what they learned about the Eichmann trial and Rabbi Lau’s charge, middle school students are creating social media posts to speak out against injustice, hatred, and discrimination.  They understand that it is their responsibility to not only learn about the horrors of the Holocaust, but ensure that the world knows about the atrocities and prevent them from ever happening again.

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