CHJ Supports Holocaust Program at Black Rock School

At the end of the school year, before the summer began, sixth and eighth grade students at Black Rock School in Bridgeport culminated a 16-week long unit on the Holocaust by reading a play, "Children of the Holocaust" by Robert Mauro. Sandra Smolen, a Black Rock School social studies teacher, and Gail Ostrow, a community volunteer educator, taught the unit. This is the 5th year of the Holocaust program and the first time this play was presented.

As part of the program the students traveled to Mystic Seaport to see the Gerda III, one of the original Danish boats that ferried the Danish Jews to safety in Sweden. They also read Number the Stars, a book about the Danish response to the Holocaust.

This year’s students presented Ms. Ostrow with a check for $100 to be used for a Holocaust “teaching trunk.” This gift, along with a $555 donation from the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County (CHJ) , will guarantee the program’s continuation at Black Rock School. Ostrow, a member of CHJ, was grateful for the money granted by the Congregation. “It will allow me to purchase 30 copies of Freidrich, Tunes for Bears to Dance To, Number the Stars, and The Diary of Anne Frank, along with other teaching materials.” She will also put together a Teacher's Resource manual so that the class offerings can be replicated in other schools. Teachers in other Bridgeport schools, and Stratford, Monroe and Trumbull schools, have already expressed interest in duplicating this program.

Ostrow explained how she began volunteering at Black Rock School in 2005, “We planted our first peace pole in the Black Rock neighborhood. My work with Peace Pals and Facing History evolved into a nine-month program for the 6th and 8th graders that is based on Facing History's ‘Choosing to Participate.’ This is what used to be called Civics or Citizenship. The Holocaust unit is part of the larger civics program.