Young Voices, Shared Stories: Bruce M. Whittier Students Present Their Holocaust Projects at MJM

Thursday, May 28, 2026
Maine Jewish Museum

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Student Presentation & Documentary Screening, Followed by Moderated Q&A and Community Conversation

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Light Lunch, Refreshments, Mingling & Informal Conversation

This year, the Maine Jewish Museum and Bruce M. Whittier Middle School have partnered through the Celebrating Rural Maine: Community Civics and Place-Based Inquiry initiative, a statewide educational project that encourages students and teachers to connect classroom learning with community engagement, public history, and place-based inquiry.

Led by 2025 Maine History Teacher of the Year Jamie Karaffa, Whittier students have spent the year exploring Holocaust history not as something distant and abstract, but as something deeply human, deeply relevant, and deeply connected to the world around them today.

Through the Museum’s signature Delet education program, students traveled to Portland to engage with living Judaism, Jewish culture, Jewish joy, and contemporary Jewish community life, while Museum staff and partners traveled to Whittier to continue those conversations in the classroom. Together, students explored not only the horrors of antisemitism and genocide, but also the resilience, creativity, humor, culture, and humanity that continue beyond tragedy.

On May 28, these students will visit the Museum once again — this time to share their final Holocaust projects with the broader community through a collaboratively created documentary presentation and moderated discussion.

The program will offer a powerful reminder that education is not simply about memorizing dates or facts. It is about helping young people ask difficult questions, wrestle with moral complexity, build empathy, and recognize the humanity in one another.

At a time when polarization, misinformation, and dehumanization increasingly shape public discourse, investing in young people — and creating spaces where curiosity, compassion, nuance, and dialogue can flourish — has never mattered more.

These students are not just learning history. They are learning how to carry history responsibly into the future.

Following the presentation and discussion, guests are invited to stay for a light lunch and informal conversation with the students, educators, Museum staff, and community members.

We hope you will join us in supporting and celebrating their work.

Registration is free but required.

Registration