Paper Clips Project
Hillel class trip shows students the power to make a difference.
Jennifer Finkel
T2T Staff Writer
T
he rolling green hills, the
clear blue sky and the trees
whose roots were planted deep
beneath the Tennessee soil passed by
swiftly and quickly as the bus rode down
the highway.
Kids were talking nonstop, some
watching the movie displayed and some
listening to their iPods. After two hours
on the bus, we arrived in Whitwell,
Tenn., home to the legendary Paper
Clips Project started by eighth-graders at
Whitwell Middle School.
When I signed up for this school
trip through Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit, I had heard numer-
ous things about what those kids did. I
knew they collected 6 million paper clips
to represent the 6 million Jews who died
during the Holocaust.
What they did was extraordinary
and unbelievable, and for that they are
famous throughout the country. But
there was so much more meaning and
reason to what they did than just those
simple facts.
Whitwell is a town of around 1,600
people. With one Hispanic family and
Above: Some of the paper clips collect-
ed by eighth-graders in Whitwell, Tenn.
Right: Monument at Whitwell Middle
School to the Paper Clip Project.
five African-American families, most
students are white and Christian. There
are no Jews. Most kids didn't even know
about the Jewish religion. When learning
about the Holocaust and how 6 million
died, they couldn't grasp the number.
They couldn't think of something so big.
That resulted in them embarking on a
wondrous journey.
They started thinking of an object they
could collect 6 million of that was small
enough but with meaning. Paper clips
were their result.
Their story quickly spread throughout
the country, and many people started
contributing. Celebrities, foreigners and
ordinary people sent letters and paper
clips to the school. Some of the letters
expressed hatred and some were encour-
aging.
They learned about how the Jews
suffered in the Holocaust and caused a
worldwide eruption of Holocaust educa-
tion.
Being there where it all started didn't
strike me as exciting until I really
learned in depth about what they did. As
I stood on the ground that they walk on
each day, I walked through their hallways
that were bare and plain, and I saw their
daily life. I felt fortunate for what I have
and realized that not all the world lives
like I do. Their houses looked run-down
and the way they lived was much differ-
ent than what I was used to. For hobbies
they fish and hunt, unlike me where I'm
on the computer, talking online or play-
ing games.
I felt different from them but didn't
act like it. I acted like they were my men-
tors, showing me about the Holocaust
because, after all, that is why I came
— to see their perspective of what hap-
pened and how they achieved greatness
by spreading awareness in a community
with no Jews. They showed the world
that everyone could take part in the edu-
cation, even if they have no relationship
with any Jew. ❑
Jennifer Finkel, 13, is an eighth-grader at
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit in
Farmington Hills.
Candid Conversations
WBHS students learn genocide consequences from Holocaust survivors.
Ariella Yedwab
T2T Staff Writer
I
'm a Jewess — I'm proud of it, and
I'll say it every day:' Erna Gorman
of Bloomfield Hills declared to a
table full of wide-eyed West Bloomfield
High School students while sharing her
remarkable story of being a hidden child
during the Holocaust.
Erna was one of nine Detroit-area
Holocaust survivors who joined Mara
Hoffert's Sociology of Genocide class for
lunch recently at West Bloomfield High
School.
The program provided students a
chance for open conversations to learn
more about the Holocaust. Students
were eager to hear the survivors' stories
and shocked at the atrocities they went
through.
As stories were being told, the room
filled with compassion, sorrow, tears
and even some laughter. Many students
looked at the survivors as if they were
their own great-
Program for
grandparents,
Holocaust
which created a 2-
Survivors and
feeling of com- E_
Families and
fort and support.
teacher Hoffert.
The survivors
This experience
encouraged the
helped students
students to ask
of all back-
them questions,
grounds and
and the stu-
religions better
dents were very Survivor Erna Gorman with West Bloomfield
understand the
High School students: seniors Haley Stern
respectful and
effects of the
and Rachel Mutchnick, junior Ariella Yedwab
engaged.
Holocaust and
and seniors Max Farkas, Jordan Foon, Sonya
A common
the tragedies
Zarkhin, and Alex Chaben.
question was
that occurred.
how they were
"It's so dif-
able to survive and what types of things
ferent learning from a textbook and
they endured. While sharing her story,
learning from an actual person, speaking
Erna said that "during the Holocaust,
to them face to face;' said senior Max
you could never be a child — you were
Farkas. "It's breathtaking to hear the hor-
an adult from day one." The candid-
rible things they went through."
ness of the conversations made for an
incredible learning opportunity for the
students.
Watch for teen 2 teen in
The program was sponsored by the
The survivors urged the students to
remember their stories and educate
others. Martin Lowenberg, another
survivor, told the students to "keep on
learning, keep on remembering because
it is so important to understand and
have compassion for what is going on
even today."
The survivors and their message really
had an impact on the students.
"I realized that this experience is so
important because people said 'never
again' after the Holocaust, but that
isn't working out so well in our world,"
Farkas said. "With these people coura-
geously sharing their stories, hopefully
more people will learn, and genocide
will end."
❑
Ariella Yedwab, 17, is a junior at West
Bloomfield High School.
next week's Jewish News
February 14 • 2008
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