Hollywood icons, including Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Garner, and David Schwimmer, have participated in a touching awareness campaign by posing for portraits with Holocaust survivors in an effort to educate people about the darkest period in history.

Photographer Bryce Thompson, who has shot for prestigious fashion magazines such as Elle, L'Officiel, and Glamour, initiated the project titled "Borrowed Spotlight," featuring intimate portraits of celebrities alongside Holocaust survivors. The project will launch at the Detour Gallery in New York on April 22, coinciding with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In addition to Crawford, Garner, and Schwimmer, other stars who joined the project include Billy Porter, George Stephanopoulos, Nicola Peltz, Barbara Corcoran, Scooter Braun, Sheryl Sandberg, Chelsea Handler, Julius Erving, Josh Peck, and several others.

"Step Up" star Jenna Dewan was paired with Risa Igelfeld, who witnessed the destruction caused by the Nazis when they invaded Vienna, Austria, in 1938. Igelfeld revealed that she survived because a soldier warned her about a Nazi plan to attack her. She escaped to England with the help of a former professor who had fled earlier and assisted her in obtaining a visa.

"This is truly an amazing and humbling opportunity to be part of such an incredible moment honoring the resilience and courage of these amazing true survivors. Meeting and listening to Risa's story was a life-changing event for me," Dewan told Page Six. "The most fun part was dancing together and hearing Risa sing," Dewan added. "The biggest challenge was hearing firsthand about the real horrors of our history that Risa went through during the Holocaust."

The exhibition will showcase portraits, survivor testimonies, and interactive elements designed to educate the public about the Holocaust. Images from the exhibition will be sold at auction, along with a photography book featuring the pictures. All proceeds will benefit "Self Help," an organization that provides services and assistance to Holocaust survivors living in New York, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Cindy Crawford also met with Nova survivors in Los Angeles, commenting on "the power of human hearts and minds."

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The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) announced the outcomes of their negotiations with the German Federal Ministry of Finance on behalf of Holocaust survivors living globally. The results include a €105 million ($114 million USD) increase in funding for social welfare services. This brings the total budget for social welfare services to €893.9 million ($972.5 million USD), nearly $2 billion in funding from 2025 through 2026. Additionally, there is an increase of €51million ($55 million USD) for Holocaust education through 2028, bringing the total for Holocaust education funding to €164 million ($177 million USD) over the next four years.

Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, said, "As Holocaust survivors age and their care is more complex, we see a need for increased social welfare services globally. It is imperative that we keep the promises we made to survivors after the Holocaust: We must ensure they are able to live their final years in dignity. We must work to guarantee they have the services and care they require. And, in this time of growing Holocaust denial and distortion, it is critical that we secure a robust foundation for Holocaust education to ensure current and future generations alike have access and opportunities to truly understand the lessons of the Holocaust. Only then can we be sure our past does not become our future. Only then can we say, 'Never again.'"

Surveys conducted this year in the United States, Canada, Austria, France, England, and the Netherlands, among others, reveal a decline in awareness and knowledge about the Holocaust. Schools worldwide have expressed a desire for education on the subject.

Social welfare services, including home care, are provided through the Claims Conference's network of more than 300 social welfare agency partners across 83 countries. Social welfare agencies engage directly with Holocaust survivors, ensuring their individual needs are met, including home care, food packages, medical needs, transportation to appointments, and socialization. Although the total number of Holocaust survivors is decreasing overall, those who remain alive require more care. These services are all essential to this last generation of Holocaust survivors.

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Avner Shalev, 81, said in a letter to Yad Vashem employees that he made the decision to leave the position after nearly three decades following a "thorough self-examination." He said that he was stepping down by the end of the year and gave no further details on his reasons for leaving.

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Shalev guided a period of dramatic transformation at one of the world's foremost Holocaust remembrance institutions. During his tenure, the site expanded to include a new museum, a centerpiece that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, and the solemn Hall of Names, a collection of 4.8 million names of Holocaust victims, which is a mainstay during visits of foreign dignitaries to Israel.

He also oversaw the creation of an international school for Holocaust studies and an institute for Holocaust research.

According to his letter, a successor has not been designated.

Yad Vashem is an almost sacred institution in Israel, where students, soldiers, and company outings tour regularly and where the country holds its annual Holocaust remembrance day ceremony.

Still, during Shalev's term, the institution has weighed in on a number of controversies.

It lambasted an Israeli-Polish compromise over a Polish Holocaust hate speech law, saying a joint statement by the countries' prime ministers contained "grave errors and deceptions" over Poland's role in the Holocaust.

It also came out against a government plan in 2018 to deport tens of thousands of African migrants, saying it saw the issue as a "national and international challenge that requires empathy, compassion, and mercy."

"The experience of the Jewish people over generations heightens this obligation," it said.

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One of the things that we have in common is the core belief that our elected officials in Congress need to do more to educate our next generation about the Holocaust. Last April, a group of House representatives (four Democrats and four Republicans) introduced a bipartisan bill called the Never Again Education Act (H.R. 5460). The bill was introduced in response to an alarming survey by the Claims Conference, now public, claiming that over two-thirds or 66% of American millennials have never heard of Auschwitz.

Furthermore, over 45% of those surveyed could not name a single one of the 40 ghettos or concentration camps and nine out of 10 people responded "yes" when asked if American students should learn about the Holocaust.

After hearing the results of this study, it became very clear to anyone paying attention that the memory of the Holocaust is quickly fading while anti-Semitism in America and around the world grows. I (Bryan) am the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and I (Naomi) have relatives who survived the Holocaust. We will never forget the Holocaust and we are both personally invested in seeing Holocaust education rolled out nationwide. But what about the millions of Americans who don't have grandparents or relatives who are Holocaust survivors and can't name a single concentration camp?

In response to these shocking statistics, these eight members of Congress introduced a bipartisan bill that would authorize and fund the Department of Education to provide grants for educational programs about the Holocaust. We and many others applauded the eight members who introduced the bill and started working with our friends, community members and directly with members of Congress behind the scenes to whip up support from additional cosponsors of the bill.

To date, the bill has 53 co-sponsors (33 Democrats and 20 Republicans). The theory behind increasing the number of cosponsors is that it was supposed to increase the likelihood that the bill would be passed in committee with a recommendation for a full vote on the House floor.

Here is where things get weird and well, very frustrating. The bill was referred to the House Education Committee on April 10, 2018 (the same day the bill was introduced) and now, over 365 days later, still has not been read once in committee or been voted on. Since the new session of Congress started, no bills related to Holocaust education have been introduced.

We aren't of the belief that the federal government should be telling any of us what to do or how to live our lives. However, in this case, we will make an exception because our future depends on it.

The federal government has a real opportunity to pass a real bill that will have tangible and measurable results. A bill that will have a direct impact on the lives of our children. If we don't start educating the next generation about the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler and the 6 million Jews that were systematically erased from existence, we run the very real risk that history will repeat itself.

We, Bryan Leib and Naomi Levin, are calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Education Committee Chairman Rep. Bobby Scott and the bill's original lead sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, to get together in a room as soon as possible, breathe life back into this bill, draft a new one and put it on the House floor where it belongs, for a full vote.

In closing, in the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "The time is always right to do what's right." This bill is right, the cause is just and our members of Congress need to stop placating the American people by telling us they care about the growing tide of anti-Semitism and actually do something to address it. This bill is their opportunity to change the tide and make an impact. Will they? Your move, Congress.

Bryan E. Leib is a program manager for the Israeli-American Council. He is a member of the board of the National Museum of American Jewish History and a member of the Jewish National Fund's Speakers Bureau. He is the former candidate for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional District and the former treasurer of the Philadelphia Young Republicans.

Naomi Levin is a software engineer. She is the former candidate for U.S. Congress in New York's 10th Congressional District. She is a board member of EMET (the Endowment for Middle East Truth), Manhattan GOP and the New York State Young Republicans.

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