By Wendy Weisbrot
As Manager of the Holocaust Education Resource Organization (HERO), my most profound responsibility is overseeing our Speakers Bureau—a group I’m honored to be part of. It includes two Holocaust Survivors and ten Second and Third Generation descendants who courageously share their family stories with schools and community groups. Each speaker approaches this work as a storyteller, skillfully intertwining personal narratives with the complex history of the Holocaust. Often accompanied by powerful artifacts and documents, their stories humanize this history, cultivate empathy, and draw vital connections between past, present, and future. I am continually inspired by their courage and dedication.
Storytelling has always been central to the Jewish tradition. Like so many of you it was just two weeks ago that my family sat down at our Passover Seder, surrounded by loved ones of all ages, vividly retelling the story of the Exodus from Egypt through animated narration, songs, props, and, of course, our symbolic Seder plate items.
It is Moses, in the Book of Exodus, that tells the Israelites three times how they are to tell the story to their children in future generations:
- When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ Then tell them, ’It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt.’ (Exodus 12:26-27)
- On that day tell your child, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’ (Exodus 13:8)
- In days to come, when your child asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ Say, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’ (Exodus 13:14)
The Israelites had not yet left Egypt, and yet already Moses was telling them how to tell the story. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l, suggested, “By making the Israelites a nation of storytellers, Moses helped turn them into a people bound by collective responsibility – to one another, to the past and future, and to G-d.”
A few weeks ago, I had a full circle experience that speaks to the profound power of storytelling. My treasured colleague and dear friend, Lauren Bloomberg, Director of HERO, and I accompanied Holocaust Survivor, Greg Shershnevsky to Amherst Middle School so that he could masterfully and impactfully share his incomprehensible family story of courage, bravery, and resilience to 250 8th grade students. The dedicated teacher, Amber Amato, who facilitated this gathering did so with a perfection that was obviously guided by her compassionate heart. Amber is most obviously invested in Holocaust education and kindly asked Lauren and I to come to her classroom to see a few Holocaust related projects that her students were involved in. The projects that Amber had her students involved in were engaging and immersive, representing the absolute best of Holocaust education. These activities were empathy based, therefore humanizing the Holocaust, and motivated students to take the lessons of the Holocaust forward.
Finally, I had to ask Amber what inspired her to not simply teach the history of the Holocaust, but to ultimately have her students connect with the human dimensions of the Holocaust. Without a moment of hesitation, Amber passionately replied that when she was an 8th grade student at Orchard Park Middle School, she heard Holocaust Survivor Joe Diamond speak, and it changed her forever. Joe Diamond, z”l, was my father!
Allow me to clarify that Amber was unaware that I am a Second Generation Holocaust Survivor or that Joe was my dad! My dad affected the trajectory of her career through sharing his powerful story. Amber promised herself that when she became an educator, she would take the lessons of the Holocaust forward with empathy and collective responsibility. And indeed, she did. Hundreds, and eventually thousands, of her students will continue to be affected by this stellar educator’s immersive Holocaust instruction that was inspired by my dad’s story. To say that I was overwhelmed with emotion, love, and gratitude is an understatement. This moment can only be described as “beshert” (meant to be). A life impacting moment that will be held forever in my heart
As we reflect on how Moses shaped the Jewish people into a community of storytellers, let us pass down our most essential and transformative stories—to our children, grandchildren, and communities—not only to nurture remembrance, resilience, and responsibility, but to spark inspiration in every life our stories touch. L’dor v’dor.
Please join our community this Sunday at 12 pm at the Hohn Auditorium at Roswell Park for our Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration. CLICK HERE TO RSVP.
Wendy Weisbrot is Manager of Buffalo Jewish Federation’s Holocaust Education Resource Organization (HERO)
