Holocaust Exhibit Launches Online
Cutting edge exhibit launches Passports program this fall, connecting visitors with survivors on a personal level
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. – This fall, Portraits of Honor: Our Michigan Holocaust Survivors launches two new components to the exhibit of 400 Michigan survivors: an online, comprehensive, interactive exhibit (www.portraitsofhonor.org), and the Passports program for exhibit visitors to connect one-to-one with a survivor’s story and journey.
The exhibit, under the direction of Dr. Charles Silow, is an interactive, electronic Holocaust educational exhibit of the Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families, a service of Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit. The online version includes voice-over narratives of each survivor’s personal story, plus links to maps, history and other educational sites.“Despite all the horrors they went through, the survivors have inspiring messages of hope, peace and tolerance,” says Silow, director of the Program for Holocaust Survivors and Families.
“We want people to know what our Holocaust survivors experienced,” he says. “We hope future generations will learn to have greater tolerance, respect and love for one another. There seems to be so much anger and hostility in the world today. We hope that learning about the Holocaust will sensitize people of all ages to the importance of respecting one another and working together to live in peace.”
* Please help us inform the public about this one-of-a-kind exhibit featuring Michigan Holocaust survivors and their stories. There is a local component as well as a global call-to-action with the new online exhibit and expanded Passports program. School groups and families are enriched by touring the local museum with this added, personal narrative component – and visitors from around the world can have the same access now online. We would appreciate your help in spreading the word on how technology is bringing these universal stories to everyone. *
“We are proud to include services for Holocaust survivors and their families among the many programs we offer,” says Rochelle Upfal, CEO of Jewish Senior Life. “They are an invaluable inspiration to subsequent generations. Their stories teach us important lessons that are always relevant.”
“Portraits of Honor is especially important as we lose Holocaust survivors, thus losing that personal interaction across the generations,” says Stephen Goldman, Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills, Michigan. “Through the Internet, Portraits of Honor now reaches visitors around the world who may never have the opportunity to experience this exhibit in person.”
Portraits of Honor was dedicated in May 2011 as a permanent exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills. With school groups visiting this fall, Portraits of Honor launches its electronic interactive Passport card reader system. Visitors receive a paper Passport with the name and photograph of a survivor and summary of their Holocaust experience, plus their message to the future. The Passport includes a QR code to be scanned for fuller biographies.
The Portraits of Honor exhibit, including the Passport program and online exhibit, have been funded by Shari Ferber Kaufman, Ron Ferber and Annette Ferber Adelman in honor of their parents, Miriam and Fred Ferber, and by Leo & Harry Eisenberg in memory of their parents, Belle and Isidor Eisenberg.
“It is through the generosity of individuals like the Eisenberg and Ferber families that we have made a difference in the education of our community,” says Carol Rosenberg, JSL Foundation Director.
There is room for additional survivors in the online exhibit. Dr. Silow invites Holocaust survivors or their relatives who may have lived in Michigan at some point to contact him to share their stories.
Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit is dedicated to enhancing quality of life for older adults through programs, residences and services that support aging with dignity and choice, and maximize independence. With offices in Oak Park and West Bloomfield, Michigan, JSL connects people with programs, residences and services through ONE NUMBER for all things aging: 248:661:1836.
For more information, www.jslmi.org, JSL administrative contact: 248:661:2999. Survivors interested in being included in the exhibit should contact Dr. Charles Silow at csilow@jslmi.org.
Media requests: Your People LLC, 248:376:0406, lynne@yourppl.com.
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Media Requests:
Your People LLC
248:376:0406
lynne@yourppl.com
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