Premiere Screening of Names, Not Numbers ® Draws 500 Before Tisha B'Av
- Rabbi Joshua Zisook
- Aug 11
- 2 min read
On Wednesday evening, July 30th, HTC’s Fasman Yeshiva High School (FYHS) welcomed 500 alumni and friends for an evening of hope and inspiration before Tisha B’Av at the movie premiere of Names, Not Numbers ® - A Movie in the Making at the Holiday Inn North Shore in Skokie, IL.
For the seventh year, FYHS participated in Names, Not Numbers®, a nationwide oral history film documentary program, which transforms the traditional study of the events of the Holocaust in Europe into an experiential project involving the actual eyewitnesses to those events – the survivors.
The 2024-25 film, produced by 30 FYHS 12th grade students, told the personal stories of six Chicago area Holocaust Survivors, Mrs. Rodi Glass, Mr. Sol Harris, Mrs. Sue Kahn, Mrs. Etta Katz, Mrs. Ginger Lane and Mr. Sol Rosen. The film touched on life before the war, as well as their experiences during and immediately following the Holocaust. The Survivors participated in on-camera interviews, and the resulting impact upon the students after hearing the survivors describe their experiences and trials during this darkest period of history. We thank our survivors for sharing their personal stories of survival with our students, particularly for their time and effort in transmitting their testimony for us and for future generations to come.
Special thanks to our corporate and individual sponsors for supporting this important project and to everyone who worked so hard to organize this evening.
This year’s film is now available for viewing at:
About Names, Not Numbers
“Names, Not Numbers ®,” a Holocaust Oral History Film Documentary program, transforms the traditional study of the events of the Holocaust in Europe into an experiential project involving the actual eyewitnesses to those events – the survivors and World War II veterans. This moves beyond the traditional classroom walls and creates an interactive and empowering educational lesson. Through this unique program, students learn first-hand about the Holocaust by making their own professional documentary. They themselves conduct oral history interviews. They themselves film and edit personal testimonies. They themselves form intergenerational connections and become the "witnesses to the witnesses."
To date, over 8,000 students in several countries from Grade 8 through college have successfully interviewed, filmed, and edited the testimonies of over 5,000 survivors and World War II veterans. The more than 850 documentary films produced by the project have been viewed by over 450,000 people and are archived in major museums and academic institutions. www.namesnotnumbers.org