Holocaust center celebrates a busy, productive year

Art & Writing

Award Winners

First Place in Writing

Joseph Gannon

Honorable

Mention with Distinction

Capri Mallari

Honrable Mention

Emma Foxon

Gastfreund

Award for Excellence in Writing

Declan Moran

May-Ronny

Zeidman Award for Excellence in High School

Maxwell Rusou

Singer Award for Excellence in Art

Leah Brassard

BY GIOVANNA WISEMAN

PROVIDENCE – On the evening of May 31, 125 supporters of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center gathered at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center for SBHEC’s Annual Meeting and Art and Writing contest awards.

IN YEARS PAST, the events were held separately, but our staff felt it was important to combine the two moving forward. This change is a prime example of the center’s ethos: honoring the proud traditions of the past while pursuing new avenues for development.

As we reflected on the year, we emphasized the tremendous expansion in our programming in the 18 months since Wendy Joering became our executive director.

In the past year alone, we have implemented a teen leadership program (LIFT), introduced a reading initiative on kindness in elementary schools (Get Up! Stand Up!), and held Kristallnacht and International Holocaust Remembrance Day programs.

We have implemented these programs while still organizing our much-beloved Community Yom HaShoah memorial service, maintaining our presence at the downtown Holocaust Memorial, and continuing to operate our busy speakers’ bureau, the heart of SBHEC.

The Holocaust center was established 35 years ago by local survivors who sought to give the gift of knowledge to future generations. Nowhere was this vision more fully realized than during the LIFT and Art and Writing Awards ceremony, when we celebrated young people committed to Holocaust remembrance and education.

The joint ceremony perfectly tied together the long-standing tradition of the Art and Writing contest with LIFT.

The audience was inspired by the art and writing created by R.I. middle and high- school students, which was on display for all to see. As one of the volunteer judges for the contest, I was equally amazed by the artistic ability and verbal skill of the students.

The contest reflects the hope survivors had when they founded SBHEC – that the youth of tomorrow would have an emotional response to the lessons of the Shoah, cementing their investment in preserving history.

The winners had their work magnified on poster boards, which schools will be able to use as educational tools. The collection is also on display at our center, at 401 Elmgrove Ave., in the Dwares JCC.

We honored the LIFT cohort for their amazing endeavors for the community, which include the creation of a graphic novel based on survivor Ruth Oppenheim’s life story, which is now on display at the center. They also participated in a statewide book-collection project that seeks to increase cultural awareness in areas of low literacy. Titles in this project include “Number the Stars,” “Something Out of

Nothing” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Spanish. None of this would be possible without the hard work of our board members, who generously donate their time and resources to helping SBHEC succeed. We are tremendously grateful for their service to our organization, as well as the generosity of Sandra and Richard Bornstein.

Watching our young honorees beaming as their photographs were taken, as old friends greeted each other, as people enjoyed ice cream from Sundaes, I was struck by the fact that this was unlike any other annual meeting I had ever attended.

This meeting wasn’t about long speeches or the finance report or the stats. It was a true annual meeting, a place to gather, to remember, to celebrate, and to look forward to a bright future together.

GIOVANNA WISEMAN is the director of Programming and Community Outreach at the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center.

Honorable Mention with Distinction

Lorenzo Bucci

Honorable Mention

Lily Cronin

Paula Olivieri

Award for Excellence in Middle School

Alice DiDonato

Featured Artists, Classroom Award of 2023

Aila Rowland

Calla Fonesca

Alice DiDonato

Rhaylie Monte de Ramos

Lily Cronin

Leah Brassard

Lorenzo Bucci