The public is invited to attend the unveiling of a Holocaust memorial project created by students at Solomon Schechter School in West Hartford.

Submitted by Riva Lewinter

The seventh grade students at Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford, working in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves, have created a Holocaust Memorial project and presentation titled ‘Our Legacy Lives On.’

Their memorial is the capstone of a year-long Project Focused Learning Initiative (PFLI) grant that encourages students to learn and engage in personal and cultural history through art.  Using sculpture as the medium to express their reflective journey, the memorial specifically addresses the generations that survived and thrived after the Holocaust.

The student-led process of developing a monument to our shared history required the seventh grade class to develop a point of view, construct, install, and write their artist’s statement.

With assistance and guidance from Artist in Residence and Visual Arts Educator, Rhiannon Van Bindsbergen, and Professor Avinoam Patt PhD., the students were challenged to create both a physical space and structure for their monument, as well as an open dialogue about their artist intent and its impact on the audience or “viewer” and the Jewish community.

The multi-layered sculpture features life-castings of their hands from which plants will grow, symbolizes the growth and beauty that has thrived after such a terrible event, as well as their own personal journeys as Jews today. The students want this memorial to not only have personal meaning, but to be a beacon of hope to the viewer; even through devastation, rebirth and growth is possible.

The public is invited to the unveiling of the culmination of a year of work which takes place on Monday, June 4 at 7 p.m. at Solomon Schechter Day School located at 36 Buena Vista Rd., West Hartford.

To learn more about Facing History and the SSDS event visit: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/facing-historys-jewish-education-program-presents-project-focused-learning

Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford!