My House to Your House

This blog comes from Emily, our department intern.

Recently, I’ve started giving tours of the Museum to camp groups, and it’s been a very exciting and rewarding experience. I’ve been training to give a tour called “My House to Your House,” and Monday I had a really great group of 5th-6th grader campers. I was extremely impressed by their interest in the Museum and their maturity. As a new tour guide, I sometimes worry about the behavior of the camp groups, but these kids were absolutely fantastic. They were genuinely interested in the artifacts and Jewish heritage. The last artifact we discussed on the first floor is an Anti-Semitic postcard, and after discussing the artifact, one of the boys gave a very moving and eloquent answer when I asked the group why discrimination happens. He said that discrimination is a result of ignorance about other people’s traditions and that it’s wrong and can be solved by listening to and learning from others.

Normally, we don’t include the second floor on a tour for young children because it focuses on the Holocaust. However, one of the counselors asked if they could see it. At this point, I could tell that these kids were mature and informed enough to really experience these galleries in a meaningful way, so we went upstairs. Again, the kids and their counselors were excellent. As we discussed the Holocaust, World War II, propaganda, and genocide, the kids gave really great answers to the questions I asked them, and they asked me some really thoughtful questions themselves. For instance, one girl asked me about the bag that Thea Gottesman sewed to go along with the dress she made after liberation. She wanted to know if the bag was to help Thea remember, the way a glass is broken at Jewish weddings to remember the sadness even as joy is celebrated. I thought the connection she made was quite interesting.

The same boy who answered my question about discrimination told me he wanted to come back to the Museum with his family, which made me very happy. I was really delighted to work with such a good group of young people.

Photo: Thea Gottesman with her dress.