Yeshiva Bochurim Visit Holocaust Museum

At YNS (AKA ‘Rabbi O’s Yeshiva) in New Jersey, a compelling, sensitive and worthwhile addition to their History and English curriculums, taught by Mrs. Ruth Newman this year, included a curriculum on the Holocaust.

These past few months the bochurim at YNS have been studying about the origins of anti-Semitism, Hitler’s rise to power, the final solution, the Jewish resistance, the liberation of the concentration camps and the propaganda prevalent during those years.  It has been a curriculum filled many readings and visual images. The students wrote essays, compositions and a final exam using comparisons, analysis and synthesis of the material learned.

The culmination of this very valuable curriculum included a trip to the National Mall and Parks in Washington, D.C., and a visit to the National Holocaust Museum.

Rabbi Yaakov Orimland, Rosh Yeshiva, and Shliach Meir Cohen led the tour through the museum, which was a powerful reminder of what was taught at YNS. The collection of publications, photographs, items from the Holocaust, oral histories given by survivors and film footage showing the atrocities had a tremendous impact on the students.

When asking some of the students about what they saw, Yonah, a student, said “It was scary.” He wondered whether it could happen again. He was also surprised by the lack of feelings some of the other people had.

“One has to wonder about how freedom could be so fragile,” Gershon, another student, said. “It made me fully understand what was so very well taught by Mrs. Newman in History.”

A third student, Menachem M., said “the trip to the Holocaust Museum opened up my mind even further to the atrocities that took place under Hitler’s rule.

“One must always remember and teach future generations of the horrors that took place and we must never forget,” said Rabbi Orimland. “Some of the staff’s relatives and relatives of the students went through the war, making a trip like this even more relevant.”

The trip to Washington did not end there.  The students also went to the Air and Space Museum, where the world’s largest collection of aviation and space artifacts is displayed. The Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia and space suits worn by astronauts were just a few things seen by the students.

The students’ journey through the National Mall included seeing the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  Some of the students had fun paddle boating in the lake at Constitution Gardens.

The last place they toured was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  The bochurim were shown how U.S. currency is produced, and how the U.S. stays ahead of counterfeiters by regularly redesigning paper money.  They also got to see what one million dollars looks like in small denominations.

For further information about Yeshivas YNS, please write to ynsoffice@gmail.com or call 609-418-0357.

Photos by Menachem Mayteles