APRIL 2 • 2020 | 41

Community Foundation of 
Greater Phoenix, she also 
enlisted help from the Jewish 
Federation of Greater Phoenix 
and the Valley of the Sun Jewish 
Community Center.
“I want young people to 
understand this history before 
[those who hate] can get to 
them,
” said Ginn, who created 
committees to handle produc-
tion-associated responsibilities, 
which included 50 Jewish and 
non-Jewish volunteers.
One committee found props 
locally to avoid costs related to 
transporting stage settings from 
Michigan. Because of the intent 
of the project, businesses cut 
prices, materials were donated 
and found objects were adapted. 
Cindy and John Millikin of 
Scottsdale had been affected by 
seeing the Anne Frank house in 
Amsterdam and offered to help. 
She worked with props, and he 
ushered. She also took pictures 
at performances.
Peg and Jeff Thoren of 
Chandler, Arizona, also wanted 
to help because of their visit to 
the Frank home. They turned to 
the Salvation Army for period 
pieces and donated a grandfa-
ther’
s chest of drawers.
“This effort created such 
a sense of community,
” Peg 
Thoren said.
By chance, Judy Laufer’
s 
mother Katie Egett and moth-
er-in-law Pearl Laufer, in their 
90s, were visiting from Canada 
during performance week, and 
she added them to the program. 
“They didn’
t want to see the 
play because they lived through 
those times, but they answered 
student questions,
” said Laufer, 
a play volunteer, author of 
children’
s books about the 
Holocaust and a speaker for the 
Jewish Book Council. “In intro-
ducing them, I explained how 
my mother survived Auschwitz 
and my mother-in-law survived 
being hidden in Poland.
“Some youngsters didn’
t real-
ize the Holocaust was about the 

Jews,
” Laufer said. 
Kerry Grimes, a teacher at 
Arizona College Preparatory-
Oakland, took 303 eighth grad-
ers to the production.
“Though the students knew 
how the play was going to end 
due to prior classroom instruc-
tion, the actors were able to 
successfully convey the tension 
building within the annex and 
held their attention from begin-
ning to end,
” Grimes said. 
Jamie Bradley brought 87 
students from the Dobson 
Academy in Chandler. 
“The eighth graders had 
learned about World War II 
in social studies, and this play 
showed my students real strug-
gles Jewish people faced,
” she 
said. 
“Seeing [the play] and read-
ing about [the Holocaust] are 
both worthy; each adds to the 
education of our children.
”
Lisa Duncan brought 30 
students from Montessori 
Day Schools in Phoenix and 
Chandler.
“They commented about how 
physically close they had to be 
and how they had no privacy,
” 
she said. “
As early adolescents, 
they value their privacy, and 
Anne’
s loss of that was hard for 
them to see.
”
Ginn was especially touched 
to hear about students at a 
Native American school selling 
cookies to raise money to cover 
the total ticket price although 
donor funding was available. 
Funds to continue the program 
were raised during an evening 
performance for adults hon-
oring Lanny Lahr, a former 
Detroiter who gave much help 
to this year’
s initiative.
“For these Native American 
youngsters, going to live theater 
was an event,
” Ginn said. “In 
their own way, they were among 
all the people who put so much 
into getting everything done. 
The people kept me going and 
will keep me going as we work 
toward more productions.
” 

L E A R N 
M O R E 
AT 

A FH U .
O R G / W H E AT

Pr
of
essor
 
Zvi
 
Pel
eg 
and 
hi
s 
team 
at 
the 
Hebr
ew 
Uni
-
ver
si
ty 
of
 
Jer
usal
em 
devel
oped 
a 
new 
cul
ti
var
 
of
 
wheat 
that 
i
s 
30% 
mor
e 
water
 
ef
f
i
ci
ent 
than 
the 
standar
d,
 
domesti
c 
cr
op 
today
. 
By 
cr
ossbr
eedi
ng 
domesti
c 
cr
ops 
wi
th 
wi
l
d 
wheat,
 
we
’ve 
shown 
that 
i
t’s 
possi
bl
e 
to 
gr
ow 
mor
e 
wi
th 
l
ess. 
Si
nce 
1925,
 
Amer
i
can 
Fr
i
ends 
of
 
the 
Hebr
ew 
Uni
ver
si
ty 
has 
connected 
the 
passi
ons 
of
 
Amer
i
cans 
wi
th 
i
nnovati
on 
at 
the 
Hebr
ew 
Uni
ver
si
ty. 
KNOWLEDGE 
MOVES 
US.

What 
has 
growing 
food 
in 
a 
desert 

taught 
us 
about 
surviving 
droughts?

JUDITH 
SHENKMAN 

Mi
dwest 
Regi
on 
 

Executi
ve 
Di
r
ector
 

T: 
312.329.0332 

E: 
jshenkman@af
hu.or
g

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