The Stones of Remembrance Project is an annual activity, sponsored by The Breman, the Lillian and Al Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education, Eternal-Life Hemshech, and the Jewish Foundation of Greater Atlanta that memorializes the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed during the Holocaust.  Students from public and private elementary, middle, and high schools in metro Atlanta are invited to participate. They are given an actual murdered child’s first and last name, the date and place of birth, and the date and place of death. They write this information on a specially-prepared stone, and decorate it using permanent markers. The stone then becomes a unique memorial to that murdered child’s life. Once the stone is completed, students are encouraged to write a short reflection to help them process their participation in the project. Their reflection can be open-ended or more guided using questions they are provided.  The stones are then either displayed as a Holocaust memorial on their school grounds, at The Breman, or each student can take their stone home and place it in a special location of their choosing.

This year a total of twenty schools/entities and more than 1600 students participated in the project: Ahavath Achim Youth Education Program, Annsley Hillman Klehr and Lisa Vitello; Atlanta Jewish Academy, Ron Einhorn; Camp Coleman, Beth Glick; Congregation B’nai Torah, Jordan Levine; Congregation Shearith Israel, Jane Arnold; The Davis Academy, Rabbi Michael Lapidus; The Daffodil Dash; The Epstein School, Dr. Idit Bendavid; The Galloway School, Leah Pence; Holy Innocents Episcopal School, Maureen Danzig; The Howard School, Ms. Leviton; The Lovett School, Kelly Lecceardone; Marist School, Jenni Justus; Mary Lin Elementary School, Jordan Rager; Morningside Elementary School, Jennifer Lieb; Pace Academy, Kirstin Baillie; Pope High School, Erica Cason; Temple Emanu-El, Beth Blick; Temple Sinai, Emily Yehezkel; The Westminster Schools, Jan Allen.

We are pleased to share with you some examples of both the open-ended and guided responses from those schools that chose this option.