Dear NFTYites,
Art has the amazing power to move individuals and civilizations alike. Art can be propaganda fuelling hatred and ignorance and art can be the vehicle for the many who fight for social justice. I would like to make you aware of an exciting opportunity you have to participate in an art project that has the potential to touch millions and commemorate millions of lives lost during the Holocaust.
In the spring of 1942 Pavel Friedmann, a prisoner of the Terezin concentration camp, wrote the moving poem “The Butterfly.” Pavel died in Auschwitz two years after writing the poem, but more than half a century later, activist Sue Klau was inspired by those words to launch a project to commemorate the one and a half million children murdered by the Nazis. Ms. Klau is collecting the same number of yellow butterflies, decorated by young people around the world. NFTY is partnering with the Israel Religious Action Center and Ms. Klau to help her reach her goal.
NFTY encourages you to take a few moments and decorate a butterfly, to make it unique and beautiful. This is a project that you can do not only in your regions, and in your TYGs, but also with your family and in your schools.
While this project is beautiful as commemoration, it should not be limited to just that. Creating these butterflies can be an inspiring way to begin a program examining genocide or human rights violations around the world today.
On behalf of the NFTY North American Board,
Mookie Kideckel
NFTY SAVP 5767-5768
Aaron Arbiter
NFTY SAVP 5766-5767
