Students of two faiths share in global lesson

BY MARY ANNE ROSS
Correspondent

Robbie Moore (r) points out a name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to (from left) his father, Don, and Sam Mattis and Josh Vaysbeyn during an interfaith trip to Washington, D.C., sponsored by Temple B'nai Shalom's Daniel Pearl Education Center. Participating were more than 40 seventh- and eighth-grade students from the Daniel Pearl Education Center and St. Bartholomew's School. EAST BRUNSWICK - How do we teach our children about evil?

How do we tell them about some of the darkest moments in human history without hurting their spirits or shattering their faith in human nature?

Volunteers from the Daniel Pearl Education Center at Temple B'nai Shalom, Fern Road, have found a way, and they are sharing it with people of other faiths.

For the second straight year, the volunteers recently took their bar and bat mitzvah students on a trip to the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., inviting along the eighth-graders from St. Bartholomew's Catholic School, Ryders Lane, to join them.

"Holocaust education is part of our core teaching, along with tolerance and respect for all people," said Miriam Eichler, religious school director for the temple.

Maria Leonard, principle at St. Bart's, said her school teaches the same values.

"Learning about the Holocaust is also an important part of our curriculum," Leonard said. "We emphasize acceptance of other cultures and religions in our religion classes and all our other classes too."

Ron Bransdorfer, a member of the Daniel Pearl Education Center Committee at Temple B'nai Shalom, said it is important that these lessons are taught on an interfaith level so that children realize that the Holocaust "did not just happen to children who were Jewish and that genocide is an issue for all people."

"We also want them to know that this is a very serious problem in the world right now and that there are things they can do to help," Bransdorfer said.

Although the trip is not a requirement for either program, it is well attended. On Jan. 15, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, about 40 students and their parents and teachers got up at 4 a.m. to board buses for the trip to Washington.

"The subject matter is serious, but we tried to make the trip laid back and fun," Bransdorfer said. Students watched movies and enjoyed home-made chocolate chip cookies and other snacks made by one of the mothers, Susan Roche.

"The weather was perfect," Bransdorfer noted. And after visiting the museum, the students had a chance to walk to the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. They also visited the Vietnam Memorial.

Dr. Andrew Boyarsky, chairman of the Daniel Pearl Education Center, noted that a visit to the Holocaust museum can be very upsetting.

"It's a normal reaction," he said. "We try to prepare them. They are there with their parents and teachers. We also have this meeting the day after the trip to discuss what they saw."

Kevin Roche, a soccer coach and parent from St. Bart's, went along on the trip.

"You never see kids this age somber, but they were somber coming out of the museum," he noted.

Roche's son Matthew will never forget the display of Holocaust victims' shoes he saw at the museum.

"I couldn't believe that they took the shoes from the people, killed them, and they kept their shoes," Matthew said.

"It was really scary," said Rachel Streitman of Temple B'nai Shalom. "I kept imagining how they were feeling. It must have been terrifying"

Some of the students picked up more historical information. Branden Fink said he did not understand how Hitler came to power and began the Holocaust, but learned more about it on the trip.

Sarah Deringer, of St. Bart's, said she is of Armenian descent and did not realize there had been an Armenian genocide.

David Litt, a member of the Daniel Pearl Education Center Committee, facilitated the post-trip meeting Jan. 16. He drew comparisons between the children's initial reactions to the trip and the experience of children during the Holocaust.

"How did you feel going on a bus trip to a place you had never been to before with a lot of people you didn't know," he asked.

"A little nervous" one student replied.

"What about when you got there?"

"It was crowded and confusing," replied another student.

"If you were feeling this way today on a trip, imagine how the 13-year-olds who lived in 1942 were feeling when they were being moved from their homes and sent to camps," Litt said.

He also challenged the students to act on what they've learned and experienced.

"You guys have the same opportunities to make a difference that the Resistance did. You can make a difference the way Martin Luther King did," he said.

Litt brought the message down to a more personal level: "You can say 'No, I don't want to hear that joke.' No one then said stop, but you can say stop."

St. Bart's student Courtney Gumbert said the excursion made her more conscious of how she relates to people.

"I am going to be more caring and more careful about what I say to people," she said.

Rob Moore, one of the students from Temple B'nai Shalom, said the trip has inspired him to do more for the people of Darfur, where a genocide has been occurring.

"I am going to contribute more and do what I can," Rob said. "My dad says history repeats itself, and I have seen what happens with the Holocaust, and I don't want it to happen again."