JPEF Films New E-Learning Module in San Rafael

Today is the first day of filming for our new e-Learning module. Below are production photos.

Pictures of Resistance to exhibit at Palo Alto JCC

Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Faye Schulman To exhibit at Oshman Family JCC, Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto

 from July 14 – August 12,  2010. 
Opening reception Thursday July 15, 6-8 pm

Click here to view exhibit information on the Oshman Family JCC's website.

Faye Schulman became a war documentarian at grave risk to her own life. During World War II there were approximately 20,000-30,000 Jewish boys and girls who escaped the German ghettos and work camps and formed and joined organized, armed resistance groups. These resistance fighters were called partisans. Faye Schulman was one such partisan.

After the ghetto was liquidated and her family murdered she escaped. Faye Schulman was with the Russian Molatava partisan brigade, whose encampment was near her hometown, of Lenin (formerly Poland) from 1942-1944. Along with serving as a doctor’s aid, Schulman also took photographs, developing and printing the two-inch negatives beneath blankets in the forest. Faye Schulman was one of the only – perhaps the only -- Jewish partisan photographer who captured Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

"Pictures of Resistance” has exhibited in ten cities around the world including Zurich, Switzerland  and Tel Aviv, Israel. It continues to draw international acclaim and media attention, bringing JPEF's work to more and more communities

“Often we hear of Jews as victims, but the stories portrayed in the exhibit spoke of Jews as heroes," said Brandeis graduate student Jessica Levine. "It gave me a new, different Holocaust story to tell, one of resistance and resilience. It made me feel proud to be a Jew."

The exhibition is curated by Jill Vexler, Ph.D. who has extensive experience with Holocaust-related exhibitions, including Letters to Sala: A Young Woman's Life in Nazi Labor Camps,  Remembering Luboml: Images of a Jewish Community, and Oswiecim, Ospitzin, Auschwitz: Portrait  of Memories, the permanent exhibition at the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim, Poland. A filmed interview with Ms. Schulman discussing specific photographs as well as a Teacher/Student Study Guide will be available on the JPEF website, www.jewishpartisans.org. 

For more information about the exhibit contact Jan@jewishpartisans.org

Oshman Family JCC Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life   3921 Fabian Way Palo Alto, CA 94303

The exhibit at the Oshman Family JCC is sponsored by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund

The exhibit is made possible through the generous contributions of 

Thomas and Johanna Baruch, the Epstein/Roth Foundation, the Koret 

Foundation, the Purjes Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman

Family Foundation, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, 

the Holocaust Council of MetroWest, and Diane and Howard Wohl.

Speak up. We cannot afford to be silent any longer.

The first place winner of the 10th-12th grade category for our First Annual Youth Writing Contest was Loren Miller, a senior from North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in New York.


Loren's essay focuses on the dangers of indifference. "Silence, in fact, is deafening," she says. 

"We cannot hear the soft hum of tattoo machines, quietly stripping people of their identities.  Nor can we hear the longing of a mother’s empty arms for the child she will never see again.  Or the sound of an inmate’s heart, beating furiously as he stands, ghost-like, through interminable roll calls. We cannot hear the hush that came over the gas chambers once the work was done, like a fleeting calm after the storm. Nor can we hear a Nazi’s unspoken acquiescence.  And we cannot hear the world community’s silence--until it was 11 million lives too late."

Using the stories of the Jewish partisan, Eugenio Gentili-Tedeschi, Loren's words conjure shocking and moving imagery. 

"Jewish partisans like Eugenio seized the moment, dropping what was left of their previous lives to be reborn into fighters against tyranny, oppression, discrimination, and prejudice. In Eugenio’s words, 'I want them to be remembered as those who make the right choice at the right time.'"

Not only did this essay meet the contest's guidelines, it exemplified the inspiration between the student and the partisan, which then resonated with the readers and judges.


Congratulations, Loren!

Winning essayist Loren Miller (left) and her educator Julie Farkas (right)

Hundreds stop by JPEF booth to celebrate Israel in the Gardens

JPEF had the wonderful opportunity to participate in Israel in the Gardens at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Hundreds of people came out to celebrate Israel and the Bay Area's Jewish community with great music, food and dance. Rabbis, grade school teachers and educators of all kinds read through our educational materials, and kids grabbed handfuls of stickers of Eta Wrobel's RESIST portrait.

It was great to hear so many enthusiastic responses about our upcoming 'Pictures of Resistance' photography exhibition in Palo Alto. It was excellent to see so many fresh faces who were eager to learn about the Jewish partisans, and JPEF's role in sharing the stories and life lessons of these unsung heroes. Thank you to Israel in the Gardens for having us, and thanks to everyone who stopped to talk to us!

JPEF team members Rachel & Pat at our booth