As 2024 draws to a close…
11/30/2024
My mother (center) and her two sisters before they were deported to Auschwitz and other camps.
I would like to ask you to help me celebrate my mother’s birthday – what would have been her 109th.
But before we do that, I want to tell you how she inspired me – and, in fact, how The Mitzvah Project was born.
Turns out we can trace The Mitzvah Project’s beginnings to one particular day: December 12, 1961. That’s the day Adolf Eichmann* was convicted by an Israeli court of crimes against humanity.
So, what did Eichmann’s trial have to do with me, my mom, and the eventual development of The Mitzvah Project?
Before the trial, very few survivors had ever shared their stories publicly. My mother certainly didn’t – including not talking to her kids (my sister and me) about it.
My mother – after suffering unimaginable abuse, deprivation, degradation, the Death March and typhus – despite everything, she tried her damnedest to give my sister and me as normal a childhood as possible. After fighting to stay alive for several years, she then fought to raise my sister and me – and did her best despite the impact of the Holocaust on her physical and emotional heath. If I let myself imagine all that she endured, I start to fall apart…
During the Eichmann trial, my mom and dad watched the proceedings every day on our old black & white TV. (In the first of its kind in human history, the Eichmann trial was beamed to TVs around the world.)
Among the things my mom saw during the trial was the survivors who had been called as witnesses. Their testimonies – at once searing, traumatic, and profoundly powerful – shattered more than a decade of silence since the war’s end and became some of the trial’s most damning evidence.
It was while watching the trial at our home in San Francisco, that something changed in my mom. As I learned years later, it was then that she decided she could no longer be silent.
Turns out she was not alone. Over time, many survivors were moved to get up and tell their stories to anyone who would listen and, in short order, these women and men began sharing their astonishing stories of survival at high schools, colleges, temples, mosques, and just about anywhere they could.
It was the survivor generation that taught the kids and adults of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s about the horrors of the Holocaust and the importance of tolerance and acceptance.
In 2001, my mother died.
And that’s when the torch was passed to me.
I had to face a challenge of my own: how do I – as a descendant of Holocaust survivors (my aunt – my mom’s sister – survived Bergen-Belsen) – continue the work of telling the stories of this terrible period in history?
After all, I couldn’t do what they did. I wasn’t an eyewitness.
I and many other children of survivors – now adults – felt an obligation, to come up with ways to reach and teach the young people of today.
My epiphany occurred around 2009 – a lightbulb went off in my head. I realized that as a performer and writer, I had some powerful tools at my fingertips.
And I began to write.
Within six months, characters and scenes began to emerge, all of which eventually morphed into The Mitzvah Project - the short play that is the centerpiece of The Mitzvah Project.
When I started presenting The Mitzvah Project (the play, lecture and talkback) at high schools, colleges and community organizations, it didn’t take long for me to see that performance had transformative power. I came to see it as a powerful tool for creating emotional learning, especially for young people.
In the process, I also saw that teaching the lessons of the Holocaust using performance can inspire young people in new ways, helping them learn the importance of confronting hate and building empathy.
So, over the last 11 years and counting, The Mitzvah Project has reached and taught more than 17,000 students in 27 states.
And we have aspirations to reach millions more.
So, please join me in the following two ways:
1. Say ‘Happy Birthday’ to my mother who inspired all of what we do at The Mitzvah Project. She would have turned 109 on November 15 and I know she would love to hear all the Happy Birthday messages from you and others.
and
2. Continue to support us. Your tax deductible gift between now and December 31st – will ensure our ability to reach even more young people. Using the combined power of theater and history, we will continue to teach the vital lessons of the Holocaust, inspiring the next generation with a message of tolerance and acceptance.
For my part, I’ll say, “Happy birthday, mom!!”
And thank you for standing with us.
Warm regards,
Roger Grunwald, Founder, The Mitzvah Project
*Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann was a key figure in the implementation of the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” Tasked with overseeing the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and killing centers in the German-occupied East, Eichmann played a central role in the Holocaust’s machinery of destruction. His 1961 trial in Jerusalem heightened international awareness of the Holocaust and its atrocities.
**A Vital Archive
The USC Shoah Foundation, established by Steven Spielberg, has recorded and preserved 52,000 survivor testimonies, including my mother’s. This archive is an essential resource for education and a powerful defense against the persistent scourge of Holocaust denialism.
News Briefs
Coming soon: The Mitzvah Project’s new website!
Upcoming Mitzvah Project High School Presentations:
Danville, CA – Monte Vista High School (end May)
Hillsborough, CA – Crystal Springs Uplands School (Jan. 30, 2025)
Walnut Creek, CA – Northgate High School (TBA)
San Ramon, CA – Dougherty Valley High School (TBA)
Alameda, CA – Alameda High School (TBA)
Los Angeles, CA – Girls Academic Leadership Academy (TBA)
Arvada, CO – Arvada West High School (March 2025)
(The above times and dates will be set and announced by early 2025.)
