On Thursday, MTA honored the memory of the 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust by holding an incredibly meaningful Yom HaShoah program, designed by students in conjunction with our Student Life Department. The presentation was organized by many of the 21 Seniors who visited Poland just a few weeks ago together with Rabbi Taubes as part of the "Names, Not Numbers" senior elective course. The program was presented twice, first to the 9th and 10th graders and then to the 11th and 12th graders, in order to accommodate everything appropriately to each student. Rabbi Taubes started things off by providing an introduction about the importance of reflecting upon the huge number of people who lost their lives. Following this, five of the Seniors shared their personal experiences about what they gained from their visit to Poland, why it is so important to know the history of the Jews of Poland and to study about the Holocaust even today, and how we can personalize those tragic experiences and learn from them. Each boy then lit a candle in connection with the loss focused upon in his remarks. The final candle was lit by Rabbi Taubes after sharing his experience of visiting Poland for the first time as well and noting that while we are correct to mourn those who tragically died as Jews, it is even more important to live as Jews today ourselves. The students were very inspired to hear first hand from their peers about what it meant for them to visit a place that had so much history before the Holocaust and that was lost through such horrible destruction. The program also included a few videos, produced by Shimmy Socol ('16), detailing what the Seniors saw in Poland. Overall, the event was very meaningful to the students and they learned a lot about the Holocaust from a different perspective than that which most were used to in the past. A special thank you goes to Mrs. Tova Rosenberg, creator of "Names, Not Numbers," for organizing the Seniors' visit to Poland.