Student Reflections Highlight the Impact of LJCC Butterfly Project Workshops

October 2024

The Levine Jewish Community Center (LJCC) Butterfly Project is entering its 14th year of workshops. The project, which commemorates the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust, involves painting ceramic butterflies as symbols of resilience and hope. It has grown from a volunteer-led initiative to a two-and-a-half-hour middle school field trip at Shalom Park, seeing over 5,000 students a year. After attending, the students are encouraged to reflect on what they will take away from the experience. Here are a few reflections from the past school year, inspiring the LJCC Butterfly Project team to continue this impactful work:

I learned that you can’t brush off hateful attitudes. Even when you see bullying or name-calling, it can lead to something larger. In this case, it led to the mass murder of six million Jewish people. I learned that everyone is equal no matter their religion, race, gender, etc. Everyone will have a bias towards certain people; it’s just the way the world is, but I have to stand up for the people around me. - Parkwood Middle School student

When we first walked in, the children’s names were all different, and we had to paint a butterfly in their memory. This is heart-touching since these kids didn’t live a long life, and for us to do something in honor of them and their name is bittersweet. When we first started the activity, they had us talk about what our names meant, and everyone who spoke said it had something to do with family. It is the same thing for all these children. They didn’t live long enough for them to even pass on their name, but they had an impact. - Charlotte Latin student

It really stood out to me when discussing the fact that Jewish individuals got their identities stripped away, such as taking their names away and giving them a number to represent them. I personally think the Nazis did this because it’s easier to kill a number than it is to kill a human. During the Painting Butterflies activity, it really stood out to me how we said their names out loud. When we painted the butterflies, I think it really sticks out how each butterfly got the name of a child who was killed and we were able to think of them as a child our age and not a Holocaust victim. - Charlotte Latin student

I learned so many things about the Holocaust that you just can’t get without talking to a person who lived through it firsthand, and it really put it into perspective for me how really awful this event in our history was. - Charlotte Prep student I learned that not all of the survivors of the Holocaust were actually in the concentration camps and some survived by leaving. I also learned that if there is nobody to remember them or say their name, then they will be forgotten for eternity. There are a lot of things I could have taken away, but the one that stuck out was how the survivors stayed so strong even when they were separated from their families. - Marvin Ridge Middle School student Feeling inspired to get involved or learn more? Email butterflyproject@charlottejcc. org to learn more about bringing a group or volunteering in workshops.