WHITE PLAINS, New York – Three public schools in White Plains, New York, hosted specialized Holocaust exhibits last spring, which introduced 2,500 students to the history of the genocide along with narratives on resilience at the local level.
These installations, entitled “We Are White Plains”, were created by the NGO Common Circles to “promote empathy and identification on the part of students in the face of the story of victims of the Shoah”, explains the founder and director. executive Marla Felton, an ex-lawyer.
“Some students, who initially had doubts about the reality or the extent of the Holocaust, told us that they had changed their minds and decided to educate their loved ones about the dangers of misinformation,” Felton explains to the Times of Israelat White Plains Middle School.
After White Plains, the NGO worked this summer on new facilities for schools in Storrs, Connecticut. Recognizing the high costs of getting students to Holocaust museums, Common Circles favors in-residence museum experiences in schools for a few months, Felton said.
The highlight of these installations, Felton says, is the students’ artificial intelligence “interviewing” Holocaust eyewitnesses as part of the USC Shoah Foundation’s “Dimensions in Testimony” project.
“In history class, you read a textbook wondering what these people really felt, right? With AI, we have something much more interactive which allows us to obtain a lot more answers, ”says Lizani Padilla Guarnos, a student at White Plains High School.
US Congressman Jamaal Bowman speaking at the ‘We Are White Plains’ exhibit in New York City, Spring 2023. (Wendy Moger Bross)
On this first day of June, in a small room adjacent to the White Plains Middle School library, students ask American Jew Alan Moskin dozens of questions about his role in the liberation of German concentration camps, in the part of what is presented as an “interactive biography”.
“I know so many kids who are anti-Semitic or who don’t believe in the Holocaust,” said Cassandra Acuna Hoppe, a student at White Plains High School. “To see and extend what these people have experienced, to have the testimony of someone who has experienced it is very powerful. Its very important “.
‘Showing faces and making connections’
At partner schools in White Plains, the installation allowed students to explore what it means to belong to a community. The guiding questions made it possible to define the components of a civil society respectful of “differences”.
Students asking questions of Holocaust eyewitness holograms via “Dimensions in Testimony,” courtesy of the partnership between the USC Shoah Foundation and the NGO Common Circles, at White Plains Middle School, New York, June 1, 2023 (Credit (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)
The students then viewed “Art & Identity”, which explains how implicit biases influence the way of thinking. It talks about “othering” and the fact that the Holocaust is the product of extreme prejudice and this phenomenon of “othering”.
“We believe that starting the experience by evoking our multiple identities allows students to have a more open attitude towards the Holocaust, to become aware of the reality that it implies on a human level and to establish ties with the survivors,” says Spiegel.
During the six months spent at the three White Plains schools, the facility has occasionally received repeated visits from certain classes to delve into the matter or “interview” each of the eyewitnesses to “Dimensions in Testimony” for 45 minutes, adds Spiegel.
“My students learned more in 40 minutes today than they would have in six weeks in class,” admits Susan Anastacio, a teacher at Eastview Middle School in the district.
‘Institutionalization of hate’
Through this Holocaust exhibit installed in their school library, students in White Plains discovered artist Bayeté Ross Smith’s photo series “Our Kind of People,” which features members of their community dressed in different clothes, corresponding to their plural identities.
“My students learned more in 40 minutes today than in six weeks in my class. »
District Superintendent Joseph L. Ricca is one of 44 personalities photographed for the installation. In addition to the costume he wears on a daily basis, the superintendent is pictured with his jujitsu outfit and sportswear.
“We help young people to realize that we are multidimensional,” Ricca tells the Times of Israel.
Students visiting “We Are White Plains,” an educational Holocaust exhibit developed by Common Circles, in New York City in spring 2023 (Courtesy)
Thanks to these portraits of people known to the students, the exhibition makes it possible to put into practice the concepts of belonging and closeness in everyday life, adds Ricca.
” I’m not the only one. Everyone played along, from the mayor to the school staff,” says Ricca, a former history teacher.
“The tools used make this conversation real to the students. »
As the leader of the first school district to welcome Common Circles, Ricca says this type of partnership is essential.
“Common Circles has designed this unique tool that helps motivate students like never before.” “The method and the tools used make the conversation real in the eyes of the students. This builds a bridge between the classroom and this immersive experience.”
Marla Felton, CEO of Common Circles, left, with Artistic Director Sue Spiegel, in White Plains, spring 2023. (Wendy Moger Bross)
The last few years, explains Ricca, have been marked by a veritable “institutionalization of hatred, an acceptance of hatred and the indictment of the other, perceived as the cause of all problems”.
The superintendent draws a parallel between this “othering” and what happened in Nazi Germany, when the Jews were the scapegoats, totally ostracized.
“The Shoah was yesterday. Two generations separate us from it, no more”.
‘An exhibition integrated into the school’
Data collected during student visits show that the project “changes the way they think about their identity and that of others. They become aware of the fact that a person’s actions have an impact”, analyzes Alan Marcus, professor of education sciences at the University of Connecticut.
Students giving feedback at Common Circles’ ‘We Are White Plains’ exhibit in White Plains, New York, in spring 2023. (Courtesy)
Hired to assess the input and impact of Common Circles, Marcus – who has extensive curriculum expertise – finds student responses to be “overwhelmingly positive”.
For Common Circles, the success of the installation comes from how the community interacts with it over time.
“Because the exhibit is integrated into the school, students can interact with it on a daily basis, allowing them to learn and grow in a more natural and authentic way,” concludes Spiegel.
2023-08-27 10:02:40
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