Middle School students in the leadership council gave a sobering and powerful assembly to their peers to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. Middle School teacher Steve Mitchell shared the importance of the assembly in today’s climate. “Right now in our world, people are trying desperately to make us not understand, trust, or like other people,” he said. “This is an opportunity to remind us that we all come from different places and have different stories. You all have important stories to tell…Because if I know your story, I can understand you, and I can respect you.”

The student group defined what anti-Semetism is and explained early instances of anti-Semitism, including a time in 15th century Spain and the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. The students watched a short clip of two elderly Jewish people reflecting on their happy childhoods in Europe before the Holocaust.

The students learned about one of the most notorious concentration camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.1 million to 1.3 million people were killed. Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the liberation of this camp. History teacher Andy Krugman explained that Jews were not the only groups of people who were exterminated in the Holocaust; other minorities were slaughtered as well, including Roma people, people with disabilities, homosexuals, people of color, and others.

Since Hama’s attack on Isreal on October 7, when 1,400 Jews were murdered, the largest number of Jews killed since the Holocaust, reports of anti-Semitism have risen precipitously in the world. These incidents are not isolated to remote areas on the globe but in small towns on Long Island, New York, as well. The students shared several organizations they can join to fight prejudice: the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Soft-Anti-Semitism, and Stand with Us.

The students who presented at the assembly were Gabe Chapman, Ella Cipriano, Noa Taback, and Nina Mattamana.