A New Program Takes Flight at The Butterfly Project!
By Cheryl Rattner Price, Executive Director & Co-Founder
In 2006, Jan Landau and I started Zikaron V’Tikvah (Hebrew for Remembrance & Hope), which is now called The Butterfly Project. It began with the idea to take Holocaust education out of the history books and provide a way for students to process these difficult stories through the use of expressive arts.
Almost 12 years later, our educational and arts programming has reached approximately 188,000 participants in over 180 schools and universities, 75 Jewish organizations (including synagogues and JCCs), 4 U.S.-based Holocaust Museums, and 2 Presidential Libraries, and has engaged schools and communities in over 20 states and 11 countries (including Poland, Latvia, Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, Uruguay, and Mexico). Our marvelous Education Team reached over 2,000 local students in 2017 alone!
And now, we have decided it is time to grow our efforts and deepen our reach to touch thousands more participants each year. We are proud to officially announce the launch of our newest program!
TBP’s Multi-Media Traveling Exhibit
We are currently developing a multi-media traveling exhibit that will create a unique educational and art memorial-making experience to students and community members across the country. The exhibit will include Holocaust artifacts, our own educational films with oral histories, essays, art and poetry from children at Terezin Concentration Camp, which inspired the launch of The Butterfly Project. The exhibit will be designed to engage both Jewish and non-Jewish families, students, educators and the public, and will be displayed in Jewish Day schools, public and private schools, universities, community organizations, synagogues, libraries, and museums.
Like our other school-based programming, this traveling exhibit will provide a gentle approach to learn about this painful topic and process difficult emotions like hopelessness, anger, and feeling disempowered. Each butterfly will be connected to a child who perished, creating a more personal connection and greater empathy, encouraging participants to speak out against injustice today. It will promote much-needed dialogue in communities near and far about our collective responsibility to remember the past, act responsibly in the present and take part in Tikkun Olam, courageous actions healing the world’s injustices.
Funding This Program
We are actively seeking funding to help with the research and development of this new program, and have recently submitted two grant proposals for significant support. We welcome your input and support if you know of any grants or sponsorship opportunities that we can apply for, as well as your direct support to help move us closer to the completion of this project. If you would like to make a donation toward this effort, please click here or contact Cheryl Rattner Price directly.
We are honored to have your support year after year. The Butterfly Project has touched hundreds of thousands of lives so far, yet there is so much more work to be done.