4 minute read
Charlotte Teen Participates in United States Anne Frank Youth Conference
December 2023
By Eliana Spector
What do a cowboy from Nebraska who loves Christian rock, a Jewish girl from Charlotte who fences, and a well-mannered speed walker from Baton Rouge have in common? The surprising answer is Anne Frank!
My name is Eliana Spector, and I am a rising junior at Providence Day School. Even at a young age, I have always been interested in my Judaism, from doing an Anne Frank project for my fourth-grade autobiography assignment to educating people about antisemitism and Jewish culture in schools. This passion led me to the Anne Frank Center, where, in 2022, I became a certified docent for their traveling Anne Frank exhibit through their student-to-student docent program. The Anne Frank Center’s exhibit at the University of South Carolina explores Anne Frank’s life and times and invites us to reflect on their meaning today. The traveling exhibit is easy to set up and consists of 32 panels, allowing it to move from school to school and fit in any space.
The training to become a docent was held at the Levine Museum of The New South in Uptown Charlotte with ten other students from Charlotte and the greater Charlotte area. The two-day workshop is designed for students who serve as guides for the traveling exhibit. It helps students realize their potential.
In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of the Holocaust, the specially designed activities prepare students for critical thinking, public speaking, and visual literacy. I helped curate and guide the exhibit at Providence Day School, and this program also opened many opportunities for me. These included sitting on Anti-Defamation League panels for school educator training, speaking to students in countywide schools, and being eligible for the Anne Frank Youth Conference. As a trained docent, I was chosen to participate in the inaugural United States Anne Frank Youth Conference at the University of South Carolina this summer. The conference brought together 24 students from around the country, ranging from high school to graduate level. The only known common thread was our involvement in the student-to-student docent program for the USC Anne Frank Center. This brings us back to the cowboy, the Jewish girl, and the boy from the bayou.
All of us had different backgrounds and reasons for attending. One of my peers said, “I came to this program because I have a drive and desire to know those who are not like me, to gain perspectives that I do not have. The more I know about other people, the more I understand what makes them who they are.” The conference, which lasted a week, was split between Charleston and Columbia. In Charleston, we spent our time learning about the intersecting Jewish and African-American stories of the South. We visited the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue (KKBE), McLeod Plantation, and the International African American Museum, and had dinner with the survivor community of Charleston. Then, halfway through the week, we moved to The Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina. Our time at USC was spent taking tours, listening to guest speakers, and learning from each other. We all agreed that the most powerful experience we wanted to bring back to our communities was our survivor dinners, which we all plan to replicate within the 20232024 school year. At the week’s end, we walked away with new knowledge and an incredible experience. I think I speak for all of us when I say, “I want to do it all again, and we truly found a second family within each other!”
