On Thursday, October 18 the religion department took a group of seniors from religion class to the Jewish History Museum in Lower Manhattan. Upon arrival, the students were split into groups and assigned a tour guide to take them around the museum.

The first floor of the museum featured information on the background of the Jewish religion, traditions, holidays, and customs. On this floor, the students watched a short film about the Jewish heritage of different individuals from many different countries. The second floor was dedicated to the Holocaust, the terrible tragedy that killed at least 11 million people. There were statistics and information about the Holocaust, as well as the touching stories of survivors and heroes of the Holocaust. The third floor exhibit dealt with the aftermath of the Holocaust and the other instances of genocide that followed. This floor also had information about peacekeepers like Martin Luther King Jr., who fought vehemently for human rights.

After the guided tour, students were taken into a separate room to watch a slide show of pictures about genocide in Darfur, a country in Africa. The students were given information about the current turmoil in Darfur and how it relates to the Holocaust. The proctor asked the students questions about the pictures and their thoughts about the situation. The students were then given time to explore the museum for themselves.

Austin Pillar, a senior at SJV, attended the trip. “It was amazing,” he said. “Our tour guide was a prisoner at a death camp himself. The stories he told us were so shocking, but I learned a lot of lessons from him.”