Check out the newest exhibit in the David L. Simon Center for Education and Tikkun Olam at Midbar Ko

Earlier this year the the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center (HRC) moved into the David L. Simon Center for Education and Tikkun Olam, transforming empty classroom space to educational space for the entire community. The renovation of the space spilled out to a redesign for the hallway, now known as the Survivor's Portrait Hallway. A beautiful display of local Holocaust survivors graces the walls, and serves as a permanent tribute to a generation that will soon be gone.

In May, the Survivor's Portrait Hallway was dedicated and the HRC hosted a program for Midbar's Religious School children. HRC's Susan Dubin and Myra Berkovits read grade appropriate stories to each classroom. Afterwards the children toured the hallway and met survivors who had come to visit for the morning. The children then accompanied their guests to lunch.

Cantor Daniel Gale, who serves as Midbar Kodesh Temple's Cantor and Director of Education invited USYer Elizabeth Doctors to document the afternoon in photos. They had decided to capture the children interacting with the Holocaust survivors and install them on the Etz Chayim-Tree of Life Wall that had been stenciled in the hallway. Over the summer Elizabeth chose her photos, digitally manipulated them, and sent them off to be reproduced on canvas. Elizabeth and her grandfather, Jerry Welt, with help from Cantor Gale, hung the photos that showcase L'dor Vador - from generation to generation.

Elizabeth is a senior at a local high school and is co-President of MKT USY with Samantha Shire. Last fall Elizabeth, who excels in the visual arts, designed and painted a wall mural in the childrens' reading room that she set up at the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. It is her interest in art and photography that sent her to the JCC ArtFest in Miami this summer where she and a crew filmed the athletic events and produced a promo for JCC ArtFest 2018 which will be held in Orange County, California next summer.