Since the beginning of the year, a number of anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in Palm Beach County, including the distribution of anti-Semitic flyers in the driveways and front yards of Boca Raton, Atlantis and Palm Beach residents, and the projection of anti-Semitic images and messages onto the sides of buildings in downtown West Palm Beach by known far-right groups.
And, according to Newsweek, neo-Nazis have been projecting anti-Semitic messages and hate symbols on buildings throughout Florida in January, blaming Jews for 9/11 and wrecking the U.S. economy.
The Anti-Defamation League reports that 20 percent of Americans believe six or more anti-Jewish tropes – the highest level in three decades, almost doubling the amount of anti-Semitic prejudice in 2019.
With the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in August 2020 in Charlottesville, Va., not to mention the recent anti-Semitic rantings of Kanye West (now known as “Ye”), the rise in hate speech and actions and particularly anti-Semitic rhetoric is alarming.
In Palm Beach County, inSIGHT Through Education is working to combat that by educating school kids and the general public with a traveling Holocaust classroom exhibit titled ShadowLight: Hope for Humanity, which provides students and adults a glimpse at the Holocaust and how we can all be a part of preventing future genocides.
Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust scholar and project director for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, was a consultant for the exhibit. Established in 2010 to help fund Holocaust education mandated by a new Florida law that added anti-Semitism to the instruction regarding the history of the Holocaust, inSIGHT teaches students to be “upstanders not bystanders” and examines the consequences of when “good people do nothing.”
Thanks to the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, in addition to visiting nine public schools, the exhibit will also be open to the community at three sites, including Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Canyon District Park in Boynton Beach and the Belle Glades Branch Library in Belle Glade.
The 360-degree multi-sensory exhibit takes place in an exact replica of a World War II cattle car that was used to transport Jewish families to concentration camps and to their eventual deaths.
“The infamous Holocaust cattle car was used to forcibly deport Jews and other targeted groups to the concentration camps, labor camps and extermination camps throughout Europe between the years of 1941-1944,” the inSIGHT exhibit says. “This was a wooden freight car meant to transport cattle. Up to 150 individuals were crammed into locked, windowless box cars and traveled for an average of four days in this state without food water, restroom facilities or even the ability to sit down.”
“Many deportees died in the cattle cars en route and for the others, it symbolized the terrifying descent into the darkness that robbed them of their families, freedom and for some — their lives.”
The traveling classroom contains a 360-degree 20-minute movie divided into three parts: What led up to war, the first-person accounts of two survivors describing their experience in the cramped space, the small windows draped in barbed wire, the darkness and the fear, and last, how to ensure this never happens again.
There is also an exhibit of artifacts commemorating Jewish life in Europe, including the yellow stars of David that Jews were forced to wear.
“The kids who have viewed this film, are now the guardians of history,” says Kelly Warsaw, inSIGHT’s co-president, along with Judy Karp. With the Holocaust growing more distant and the first-hand witnesses to the atrocities diminishing in number each year, who will be left to tell the story?
“Education is the key,” says Warsaw. “That is our focus. We want to do our part to create a society of acceptance and respect for all.”
“Through education, inSIGHT is committed to making a difference here in Palm Beach County,” she ways, saying that they hope to reach 5,000 people with a message both of empowerment and of tolerance.
“This exhibit is quite a moving and compelling way to tell a story in a short period of time,” says Josephine Gon, vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County.
“We need to be creative to reach today’s kids,” she says. “This is an experiential event, and a way to engage with them on an emotional level.”
“By following the stories of the two survivors, it brings the experience to a more personal level,” Gon says. “You can’t imagine the enormity of six million people suffering, but you can identify with two people’s very personal experiences.”
“The goal of this exhibit is to educate the community about the atrocities of the Holocaust on a personal level and empower all ages to stand up to hate,” she says. “This is a timely and important message and especially now it’s essential people understand where hatred and racism can lead.
“We need people of all races and religions and ways of life to speak out, to denounce racism and hatred, to say it is not OK and we won’t let this happen again,” Gon says.
The exhibit is free and open to the public on the following dates:
Sunday, February 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Canyon District Park, 8788 Joe Abruzzo Ave., Boynton Beach
Sunday, February 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Palm Beach Atlantic University, between Warren Library and Baxter Hall, 901 S. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach
Sunday, February 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Belle Glades Branch Library, 725 NW 4th Street, Belle Glade.
To learn more, visit insightthrougheducation.org. For questions, please contact Nancy Cook, community event cochair, at info@insightthrougheducation.org.