For More Information:

Taylor Epstein; TaylorE@jfcs.org; 415-359-2463

The Next Chapter Holocaust Survivor Project

The Next Chapter Project matches 11th and 12th graders with Holocaust survivors from Poland. The students interview the survivors about their lives. They also work on a book that includes each survivor's story, genealogical research, and documentation on Jewish life in contemporary Poland, as well as on the town where each survivor was born.

The books are presented to the California State Assembly at the Yom Ha Shoah memorial and to Yad Vashem, the Jewish Historical Institute, and the Holocaust Center of Northern California. The students attend the Assembly program in Sacramento.

A Special Alliance

At weekly workshops, representatives from the Holocaust Center of Northern California, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, Jewish Partisan Education Foundation, the Bureau of Jewish Education, Congregation Emanu-El, and Jewish Family and Children's Services address the students.

At Emanu-El, the students study Holocaust history, how to write and document oral histories, and how the Jewish community in Poland has re-emerged after the 1989 fall of Communism. In addition to the essay they write, the teens work with research partners at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland, via email, to help trace what happened to each survivor's family, community, and town after the war.