A Somber Collage Of Jewish Stars For Holocaust Remembrance Day

Photo credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, here in Israel. I realized today that on this day I generally post a photo, which is a message of sorts, but not really the kind of message that is my forte, namely education thought crafting and creativity. So today, as I personally remember the victims of the Holocaust, which certainly did include relatives of mine who did not flee Europe in the early 1900s as did the families of my grandparents on both sides, I am going to make a small attempt to present some ideas for craft projects that might be appropriate today, or any time really when educating children about the Holocaust.

A collage of Jewish stars for Holocaust remembrance day is a simple yet compelling image that can certainly be a powerful education tool. I do not know whether the above image is actually an art piece, or taken from a Jewish museum, nonetheless, we can certainly use it as inspiration for our own projects. Okay, lets get started:

You'll Need:

• cardboard, newspaper, felt stiffened fabric, mixed media paper created by students
• hot glue, high tack craft glue
• a black canvas, or a large black posterboard, or a large piece of black fabric

How To:

Step 1: Decide the size of your star, roughly the size of the yellow stars Jews were made to wear on their clothing is the best size, around say 3×3 inches. Make a cardboard template of that star to be used by the participants in the project.

Step 2: Prepare the material, here are a few ideas, but get creative with this!

• stars made from recycled clothing brought in by children is one idea, and cloth shoudl be stiffened by dipping it in diluted white glue, or painting it with dilted white glue and set aside to dry a day before the project
• make it literal with yellow felt stars, but add something to those stars, like initials or names of actual Jews that were murdered, Jewish students could bring in names of actual family members
• wax and ashes are both great visual tools, so older children could melt wax onto cardboard and make stars from that, or draw with black charcoal to represent ashes. Burned scraps of paper as a collage material would also be effective
• mixed media paper made by students with printing and stencilling on top of copies of newspaper articles on the Holocaust, could also be great, just keep the colors neutral so it doesn't look happy
• cardboard stars dipped into thick left over house paint is textural and interesting, and you can crack them once dry

Step 3: Assemble the project. Either hot glue, glue or sew your stars to the black background. Do not line them up, on the other hand you don't want them to be too all over the place. Keep them all straight just don't place them in straight lines, see photo above. The larger the project the better for maximum impact.

Step 4: Add your personal touch with a poignant discussion about ending hate in the world that ties into the horrors of the Holocaust. For inspiration, and many many stories and information that may be helpful, I recommend you take a look at yadvashem.org the site for the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.

That is it, let me know if you decide to do this project, and of course I'd love to see photos of your results.

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