On April 27, 2023, Julie Kohner, Founder and CEO of Voices of the Generations, presented the program to her home Synagogue as part of Thursday Lunch-and-Learn, and West of 65 group event. Nearly 70 guests were treated to lunch hosted by the Congregation, followed by the VOG presentation. Special thanks to Rabbi Laurie Rice, Membership Director Mindy Drongowski, and West of 65 organizer Paula Kirwan for planning and organizing the event.
Julie Kohner, founder and CEO of Voices of the Generations, presented the VOG program to students and parents at Temple Shalom in Norwalk, Connecticut on Sunday, April 23, 2023. Thank you to Rabbi Jason Greenberg for brining the program to their congregation.
VOG Founder, Julie Kohner, presented Voices of the Generations and “This Is Your Life, Hanna Bloch Kohner, in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a Film Screening & Tools for Education and Action. The event was held via Zoom, with 600 registered participants online for the event.
The program included a screening of the 1953 historic airing of This Is Your Life featuring Hanna Bloch Kohner, a Holocaust survivor who lived through four concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Broadcast only eight years after the end of World War II, this show brought the horrors of the Holocaust into the living rooms of American families for the first time on national television. The groundbreaking program paved the way for future Holocaust dramatizations and documentaries in television and film.
Following the screening, Teresa Drenick, Interim Director of the ADL Western Division, held a conversation with Hanna’s daughter, Julie Kohner. Additionally, ADL senior staff across the west coast shared resources for education and action.
Voices of the Generations presented to the United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan and Darien Connecticut, and the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County, at Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT on April 16, 2023. More than 100 attendants heard VOG founder, Julie Kohner, present her parents story and viewed the episode of This Is Your Life, Hanna Bloch Kohner, followed by a great Q&A session. Julie signed her parents book, Hanna and Walter, A Love Story, following the presentation.
It is with great pleasure to announce that Voices of the Generations is now working with the Tennessee Holocaust Commission to bring the VOG program to schools throughout Tennessee. This week Julie Kohner presented VOG to Apollo Middle School in Antioch, Tennessee and to Bellevue Middle School in Bellevue. Both classes have been studying Holocaust history through their 8th grade English classes. Both presentations sparked great question and answer sessions with the students, who have been studying Holocaust through readings of Diary of Ann Frank and other notable works.
Thanks to the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, Alyssa Trachtman, Director of Operations, and Ken Gluck, Education Coordinator.
Hate, Holocaust, and the Search for Humanity: Survivors’ Perspectives
On Tuesday, April 5 a class presentation by Julie Kohner featured Echoes of the Past, along with classroom discussion. In the afternoon, a panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at American Jewish University, with Rosian Bagriansky Zerner, a Holocaust survivor, and Julie Kohner, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The evening culminated with Voices of the Generations featured as the keynote presentation.
This event was sponsored by the TCU Department of Religion Green Honors Chair and Brite Divinity School Gates of Chair.
Special thanks to the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, and Texas Christian University for making our VOG program and visit possible.
Voices of the Generations founder and CEO, Julie Kohner, presented at University Synagogue to 250 senior Los Angeles area high school students preparing to travel to Poland and Israel. The March of the Living trip will tour Holocaust remembrance sites such as Auschwitz in Poland, and memorial sites in Israel. Thanks to Maya Aharon, Director for March of the Living.
As part of the 81st commemoration of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, Julie Kohner presented Voices of the Generations at The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida on Nov 10, 2019. With nearly 200 in attendance, including many survivors and second generation families, Julie brought the story of Hanna and Walter, along with This Is Your Life, Hanna Bloch Kohner to the museum. Thanks to the Museum and Second Generation for hosting this event.
Julie Kohner and The Florida Holocaust Museum Curator, Erin Blankenship
Nearly 200 in attendance for the Kristallnacht Commemoration.
The Florida Holocaust Museum is home to one of the few remaining box cars used by the Nazis to transport Jews to Auschwitz and Treblinka. Box Car number 113069-5 now rests on original tracks from Treblinka.
Julie Kohner has brought Voices of the Generations to the east central New Jersey area with programs commemorating Yom Ha Shoah.
Speaking at B’Nai Israel on Tuesday April 30, Rabbi Bayar made mention that this Yom Ha Shoah service was the first time that a survivor was not available to speak, making the point that survivors are growing fewer in numbers, and that it has become more critical for their children to carry on the legacy of the Holocaust.
Rabbi Tobin of B’nai Shalom in West Orange, NJ also shared his views on this Yom Ha Shoah of the importance of not shielding our Jewishness in light of the recent synagogue tragedies in Poway, CA and Pittsburgh, PA.
In the context of remembering the Holocaust, sharing stories of our survival as a people, speaking to congregations on this Yom Ha Shoah makes this all the more evident that survivors experiences must continue to be shared as a collective means to remember that hate takes many forms yet always manifests itself for what it is.
Many thanks to Rabbi Bayar of B’Nai Israel in Milburn and Rabbi Tobin of B’nai Shalom in West Orange, NJ for bringing Voices of the Generations to their congregations in honor of this Yom Ha Shoah.
Voices of the Generations 