Holocaust survivors and their families can now create online presentations to tell their personal stories and preserve and pass on the memory of the Holocaust through a beta website launched on Holocaust Remembrance Day by US nonprofit PresentMemory.
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PresentMemory was started by Emily Kane Miller, the grandchild of survivors, who wanted to tell her own family's story. Miller was aware that the process of creating engaging presentations can be challenging and time-consuming.
Miller's initiative has partnered with the collaborative platform Haggadot.com, which allows Jews to personalize their Passover Haggadah, to expand the Haggadot.com's existing infrastructure for use in helping Holocaust survivors and their relatives create compelling online features.
"I am deeply inspired by my grandparents, Cantor David Kane z"l and Yetta Kane. Despite the pain it stirred, their unwavering commitment to retelling their stories of survival and love, particularly to young students – many of whom had never before met a Jewish person, let alone a survivor – epitomizes the power of memory," Miller said.
"As I started to think about how I could approach telling my family's story, it was very intimidating. We are creating PresentMemory so that every descendant of survivors can more easily find the words – and images – to be their family's torchbearer," she added.
Thanks to donations from six "Cornerstone Families," PresentMemory has launched a beta site, and is now looking for 100 Founding Families to join as early adopters and partners. These families will be asked to make at least one presentation between April and September on the site and provide the organization's development team with feedback. The team is also asking all Founding Families to make a $360 tax-deductible donation to help cover the final costs of building out the platform.
Haggadot.com founder and Executive Director Eileen Levinson said her organization was "thrilled" to expand its technology beyond the seder table "to help Jews share their most meaningful stories at any time of year."
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