Finchley Reform Synagogue – Educational Workshop – HMD 2025

Monday, 3 February 2025

Activity information

Activity type: Private activity

Organisation name: Finchley Reform Synagogue

Address:
Finchley Reform Synagogue
Fallow Court Avenue
Finchley
Loncon
N12 0BE
United Kingdom

Our workshops will take place on 3 Feb, 4 Feb, 5 Feb, 10 Feb, 11 Feb and 12 Feb - two workshops each day (9:30am to 12 noon and 1pm to 3:30pm) at Finchley Reform Synagogue. They are free 2.5 hour workshops for year 9 students at local secondary schools as well as
teacher training students at Middlesex University.

All workshops are fully booked and we are expecting around 1000 young people to attend (plus teaching staff).

We hold these workshops each year and have been doing so since 2006.
Our HMD team team is made up of 70+ volunteers (mostly members of FRS).

Format of workshop:
1) Welcome from one of the clergy team.
2) Introduction to workshop from HET trained educator.
3) Survivor speaker giving testimony for 45 minutes plus questions.
4) Refreshment break and chance to look around prayer hall, see our Czech Torah scroll, Ark, other artifacts, a display of ceramic shoes by the late sculptor Jenny Stoltzenberg, an exhibition about the life of Irena Sendler - and this year, an exhibition of unique photographs of Holocaust Survivors in Great Britain exclusively on display at FRS, from the book ‘Portraits for Posterity’ - commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
5) Powerpoint presentation about Irena Sendler and her work in Warsaw Ghetto
6) Interactive activity entitled 'Life in a Jar' based on the work of Irena Sendler, to encourage empathy. it focuses on how and why ghettos were created, how victims of the Holocaust wee real people and how good people can choose to act in order to save lives, despite terrible personal risk. The students will leave with a physical reminder (a jar) or the workshop and the emotions and engagement they had during it.
7) Poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston
8) Short film made by UNICEF entitled 'Refugees: The Shared Story of Harry and Ahmed
9) Lighting of 7 yahrzeit candles (6 for the 6 million Jews murdered, plus 1 for those murdered in other genocides)
10) Time for reflection

Organiser Name

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