Student from 150 High Schools and Middle Schools Will Meet Holocaust Survivors at Chapman University Event, Friday, March 8, 2013

Orange, CA (PRWEB) March 01, 2013

Students from 150 high schools and middle schools from throughout Southern California, from other states and even from another country (Chile) will visit Chapman University for the 14th Annual Holocaust Art and Writing Awards Ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday, March 8, held in the universitys Memorial Hall. The students from public, private and parochial schools throughout Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties previously submitted essays, poems and artworks to the contest, which was judged by a panel of Holocaust survivors, local businesspeople, professionals, organization leaders and Chapman faculty and students. The award winners will be announced at the ceremony.

This event is not open to the public, as all the seats in the auditorium are filled by the students, their teachers and their parents. However, the media is welcome to attend and cover.

Guest speaker at the awards ceremony will be Holocaust survivor Chava Ginz Pressburger, whose brother, Petr Ginz, died in Auschwitz in 1944 at the age of 16. She will speak about her experiences and her brother who was an artist and wrote five novels between the ages of 8 and 14 in a talk entitled The Courage to Create. Music for the awards ceremony will be provided by the Orange County Klezmers.

Following the ceremony, students will have the opportunity to meet with the more than 60 Holocaust survivors who will be in attendance. For the eighth consecutive year, Publications International has donated more than 2,000 copies of the hardcover book The Holocaust Chronicle, which will be given to each student. A high point of the day is when students meet with the survivors and have them sign their books.

There are not many occasions when this many Holocaust survivors are together in one place and meeting with so many students one on one, says Dr. Marilyn Harran, Stern Chair in Holocaust Education at Chapman University and director of Chapmans Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, which is presenting the contest and awards ceremony in partnership with The 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivor organization. Its an important day for the survivors, as they pass along their knowledge and experiences to the next generation, and for the students, who have the chance to meet and be inspired by the living witnesses to the history they have been studying.

The event is co-sponsored by Chapmans Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, The 1939 Club (one of the largest Holocaust survivor organizations in the U.S., based in Los Angeles), the Samueli Foundation and Dana and Yossie Hollander. The contest is presented in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education and the Catholic Schools – Diocese of Orange, the College of Educational Studies at Chapman University and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, with contributions from Facing History and Ourselves and the Anti-Defamation League.

For more information: (714) 628-7377 or http://www.chapman.edu/holocausteducation.

PARTICIPATING HIGH SCHOOLS:

Acaciawood College Preparatory Academy