To mark Holocaust Education Month this November, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa is collaborating with its partners at school boards, synagogues, and embassies for programs across the city.

Connecting school-aged children to learning about the antisemitic incitement and persecution that led to the Shoah is one of the most impactful ways to keep the lessons of this history alive for generations to come.

Federation is partnering with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) to offer guided tours of an exhibit titled A Thousand Kisses: Stories from the Kindertransport, created by the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, England, one of the world’s most extensive archives of the Shoah. 

This travelling exhibition draws on the library’s collections to tell the story of the Kindertransport through the perspectives of eight children and the loved ones they left behind. You can learn more about this exhibition here.

“The exhibit will be hosted at four Jewish community institutions across Ottawa over the course of November,” said Federation’s Community Relationship Coordinator Amos Bitzan. “The exhibit is being supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office of the United Kingdom via the British High Commission in Ottawa, which first connected us to the Wiener Library.”

Providing a chronological narrative and rich historical context, the exhibit integrates well into the Ontario curriculum’s Holocaust units by providing an age-appropriate connection for students to learn from the perspectives of what children around the students’ ages experienced during this period.

The Ontario Ministry of Education announced a new requirement that Grade 6 social studies include learning about the Holocaust and that the compulsory Grade 10 history course include study of the Holocaust that explicitly links it to antisemitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s.

The exhibits will be shown at Congregation Machzikei Hadas the week of November 3, Congregation Beit Tikvah the week of November 10, the Ottawa Torah Centre Chabad starting November 17, and at the Soloway JCC the week of November 24.

Drawing on his past work teaching the history of the Shoah, Bitzan will give a guided tour of the exhibit to students at these sites, and the public will also have opportunities to view the exhibit on a limited basis.

“My goal is to bring these students into Jewish spaces, including some religious spaces, so that they are able to interact with contemporary Jews and Judaism in their own city and neighbourhood while learning about the history of the Shoah and the Kindertransport in particular,” said Bitzan. “I want to combine the presentation of the exhibit with an engaging presentation of some basic information about Jews and Judaism today.”

He also notes that for many newcomers to Canada, particularly those fleeing areas of conflict, it is important to highlight the fact that the children who came to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport had to face a new country and language, sometimes without their nuclear family support network, drawing parallels to contemporary experiences.

As antisemitism continues to rise globally, exhibits like this one allow students to connect the dots about how Jew-hate isn’t just a thing of the past, but continues to be very prevalent globally. 

On the final stop of its tour, the exhibit will be on display at the Greenberg Families Library at the Soloway JCC from Sunday, November 23, to Sunday, November 30, excluding Thursday and Friday, in accordance with the library’s operating hours.

Community members interested in touring the exhibit should contact Amos Bitzan at [email protected].