Arrowhead’s SAVE team presented The Mitzvah Project on April 7th, 2021.

SAVE is a club at Arrowhead that focuses on sharing stories of veterans as well as survivors.The Mitzvah Project is “a one-person drama about one of the most astonishing stories from the Holocaust.” This is a true story that was presented over zoom by Roger Grunwald who is the son of a Holocaust survivor. This was presented to students and staff here at Arrowhead. 

Shanna Hechimovich, a history teacher and leader of SAVE said, “SAVE stands for Survivor and Veteran Experiences. The Survivor part is referencing Holocaust survivors. When the group first began they interviewed Holocaust survivors (along with veterans) to save their stories for posterity. Since there are not many survivors left to interview, we have migrated to bringing education programs about the Holocaust or Holocaust-related topics to Arrowhead. Again, with the goal of educating about the Holocaust so their stories are not lost.”

Since the event was broadcasted through Zoom, 100 students were allowed in and 45 students were allowed in the junior study hall to watch the zoom from there. 

Joey Angeli, a junior at Arrowhead said, “I thought it was very interesting in the way it was presented. I found it interesting that the same person acted as two people who were a part of two different sides of the war.”

The presentation lasted from 2:30 pm until 3:45 pm; this included a twenty-one-minute performance of The Mitzvah, a twenty-minute live lecture with a presentation, as well as a twenty-minute Q&A.

Angeli said, “The part that stuck with me the most was the fact that a man had to take something that he has practiced and was a part of this man’s whole life (Judaism) and throw it out of the window when he joined the Nazi army because he was in fear of getting killed simply because of his religion.”

According to Hechimovich, SAVE plans on doing more stuff like this in the future; she said, “We try to bring in a Holocaust educator every year so yes, we will continue to provide these opportunities for Arrowhead students.”

If you are interested in knowing more about the Mitzvah Project, you can head over to the website linked below. https://www.themitzvah-studyguide.org/