Changing the way we remember the Shoah

“The main goal of the project is to give the survivors a place where they can talk freely about their personal story and to reach out to all the different sectors of Israeli society.”

By MAYA PELLEG
‘Zikaron Basalon’ participants meet a survivor, last year in Jerusalem (photo credit: Courtesy)
‘Zikaron Basalon’ participants meet a survivor, last year in Jerusalem
(photo credit: Courtesy)
 How do you commemorate the Holocaust? That is the question that the Zikaron Basalon (Memories at Home) project is asking young Israelis today.
The project, established in 2010 by Adi Altschuler, commemorates the Holocaust beyond the educational framework in Israel.
“After people finish school and the army they don’t have a framework where they can talk about the commemoration of the Holocaust,” said Natan Rushansky, one of the Jerusalem team organizers of the project.
“They can watch TV or go to a commemoration service in their hometown. Together with that, the national commemoration process has become less and less relevant today and what we try to do is make this day get a new meaning.”
This year organizers are planning 500 meetings on Holocaust Remembrance Day, each hosting a survivor who will tell stories that are not usually told in public. Learning about the Holocaust up close is what the program is all about, organizers said.
The first event took place in Altschuler’s living room six years ago, and one year later, there were 10 people hosting projects in their own homes. Last year the project reached 150 living rooms across Jerusalem and hundreds more in the rest of Israel and the Jewish world.
In almost every city there are community leaders helping organize these meetings.
They prepare information for the hosts, make connections between survivors and hosts and give ideas for discussion topics for the participants.
In the last couple of years the project has developed the information about the program in several languages, including English and French, to help spread the memory and make sure that people that are interested can create their own experience anywhere in the world.
The organizers give only general guidelines on how to conduct the event. Meeting in someone’s living room gives the opportunity to commemorate the Holocaust in a new and different way.
In each event, the participants create their own experience through an open discussion about the Holocaust and its impact on society through time. There is also a place for personal touches – such as singing a song, reading a short story, or even watching video clips – that give an option for people to express themselves.
“It is priceless to hear their [the survivors’] reaction and how much they benefited from the session. They get a chance to talk about their whole life story, and not just about the war,” Rushansky said.
“The main goal of the project is to give the survivors a place where they can talk freely about their personal story and to reach out to all the different sectors of Israeli society.”
“A year ago I hadn’t even heard about this project. The day before Remembrance Day I was looking for something to do, and I joined my friend and went to a house where I didn’t know anyone. The evening was so special and meaningful to me that I decided that this year I have to host my own meeting at home in Haifa with my grandmother, who is also a survivor.” said Inbal Magen, one of the leaders of the project.
This year when the project started searching for volunteers, Magen decided to join the community leaders of the Jerusalem group.
“Just as people celebrate Passover, we want every person in Israel and Jews overseas to commemorate this day, by having an open discussion in their homes,” says Magen.