Four members of MTA’s Class of 2016 – Jason Blatt, CJ Glicksman, Eli Kahn, and Shimmy Mandelbaum – who took part in the school’s “Names, Not Numbers” course, which provides an experiential course about the Holocaust in which the students learn film-making and interview Holocaust survivors, and participated on the school organized trip Poland this past school year, spent the past week volunteering at the Lauder Foundation Educational Retreat Camp, where they are joined by Mrs. Tova Rosenberg, the program director.

Shimmy Mandelbaum, CJ Glicksman, Eli Kahn and Jason Blatt

At the retreat, about 180 Jews in ages ranging from 6 to 82 (with about 60 children) from all over Poland stayed at the Vestina Hotel in Wisla, Poland, about two hours from Krakow, for about a week’s time. The MTA alumni led sessions in how to read the Siddur in Hebrew, led singing sessions, and even learned some Polish themselves. One of their Hebrew language students, Zofia, is a Holocaust survivor they had first met with they attend MTA’s trip to Poland in April. The boys, along with Mrs. Rosenberg, also presented to the camp over Shabbos, discussing the impact of their visit to Poland in April. It’s incredible that they are so quickly taking lessons and skills they learn at school and applying them to help the greater Jewish community!